FOURTH WEEK] October 275 



is probably of Grecian origin, and was originally applied 

 to a half-mythical animal, located on the banks of the 

 Euphrates, and described as "very savage and fleet, and 

 having long, saw-like horns with which it could cut down 

 trees. It figures largely in the peculiar fauna of heraldry." 



Deer is of obscure origin, but may have been an adjec- 

 tive meaning wild. Elk is derived from the same root as 

 eland, and the history of the latter word is an interesting 

 one. It meant a sufferer, and was applied by the Teutons 

 to the elk of the Old World on account of the awkward 

 gait and stiff movements of this ungainly animal. But in 

 later years the Dutch carried the same word, eland, to 

 South Africa, and there gave it to the largest of the 

 tribe of antelopes, in which sense it is used by zoologists 

 to-day. 



Porcupine has arisen from two Latin words, porcus, a 

 hog, and spina, a spine; hence, appropriately, a spiny-hog. 

 Buffalo may once have been some native African name. 

 In the vista of time, our earliest glimpse of it is as bubalus, 

 which was applied both to the wild ox and to a species of 

 African antelope. Fallow deer is from fallow, meaning 

 pale, or yellowish, while axis, as applied to the deer so 

 common in zoological gardens, was first mentioned by 

 Pliny and is doubtless of East Indian origin. The word 

 bison is from the Anglo-Saxon ivesend, but beyond Pliny 

 its ultimate origin eludes all research. 



Marmot, through various distortions, looms up from 

 Latin times as mus montanus, literally a mountain mouse. 

 Badger is from badge, in allusion to the bands of white 

 fur on its forehead. The verb meaning to badger is 



