352 HOOFED ANIMALS 



one particular at least the Roebuck is unlike others of his 

 kind; he never forsakes his mate. 



When hunted, this Deer is said to endeavour to elude its 

 pursuers by the most subtle artifices : it repeatedly returns 

 upon its former steps till, by various windings, it has quite 

 confounded the scent. The cunning animal then, by a 

 sudden spring, bounds to one side, and, lying close down, 

 permits hounds to pass quite near without offering to stir. 



The Roe Deer can never be perfectly tamed. Even in 

 captivity it retains most of its natural wildness, refusing 

 even to become friendly with the one at whose hand it 

 feeds. In hunting the Roe Deer in Scotland the animals 

 are frequently driven to the guns, which are often loaded 

 with shot instead of ball cartridge. One notable day's bag 

 in Inverness-shire consisted of sixty-five bucks and thirteen 

 hinds. On the Continent this species of Deer is still more 

 abundant, and in Austria over sixty-eight thousand have 

 fallen to the hunters in a single year. 



ELK (A Ices macklis). 

 Coloured Plate XXVI. Fig. i. 



The Elk or Moose, huge and ungainly, is the giant of the 

 Deer tribe, attaining a height of from six to nearly eight 

 feet, and weighing as much as fourteen hundred pounds. 

 Fossil remains prove that the animal existed in the British 

 Isles some ten thousand years ago. It now inhabits the 

 extreme North of Europe and the cold regions of Asia 

 and North America, being commonest in the last-named. 

 There are only a few strictly preserved animals in the 

 north of Scandinavia and various parts of European 

 Russia ; in Siberia it is more numerous. In the middle 

 of the last century this great Deer was common throughout 

 the north of the New World, but reckless hunting for the 

 sake of its hide has greatly diminished its numbers. 

 Labrador and the basin of the Lower Mackenzie are 

 now the chief hunting-grounds, and there the Govern- 

 ment restricts the slaughter, and only permits fair sporting 

 methods of capture. 



