Zoological Society. 415 



a. The Deer of the Snowy Regions have a very broad end 

 to the nose, which is entirely covered with hair, a short tail and pal- 

 mated horns ; the fawns are not spotted, but uniformly coloured like 

 the adult ; the skull with a large nose-cavity, and with the intermax- 

 illaries not reaching to the nasal. 



a. The Alcine Deer or Elks have no basal snag, the first branch 

 of the horn being considerably above the crown. 



1. Alces; Alee, H. Smith. 



The muzzle is very broad, produced, and covered with hair, but 

 there is a small, moist, naked spot in front of the nostrils ; the neck 

 is short and thick ; the hair is thick and brittle ; the throat is rather 

 maned in both sexes ; the hind-legs have the tuft of hair rather above 

 the middle of the metatarsus ; the males have palmate horns. The 

 nose-cavity in the skull is very large, reaching behind to a line over 

 the front of the grinders ; the intermaxillaries are very long, but do 

 not reach to the nasal ; the nasals are very short. They live in woods 

 in the northern parts of both continents. 



1 . Alces malchis. The Elk or Moose. 



Dark brown ; legs yellower. 



Alces, Gesner; Plin. — Cercus Alces, Linn. S. N. i. 92; Pallas, 

 Zool. Pi. A. i. 201 ; H. Smith ; Richardson, Fauna Bor. Amer. 232. 

 — Alces Malchis, Ogilby, P. Z. S. 1836, 135 ; Gray, Knows. Menag. 

 56. — Moose Deer, Dudley, Phil. Trans, n. 368. 165. — Elk, Laws, Ca- 

 rol. 123; Pennant, Syn. — Elan, Brisson, II. X. xii. t. 7- Supp. vii. 

 t. 25 ; Cuvier, R. A. — Oriynal, La Houtan, Vov. 7'2 ; Charier. Xouv. 

 France, hi. 126. — American Black Elk {Calces p.), H. Smith, G.A.K. 

 v. 7/1. — Loss, Russians in Siberia. 



Inhabits the Northern regions of America and Europe. 



Several naturalists, especially Colonel Hamilton Smith, thought 

 they had observed a difference in the horns of the Russian and Ame- 

 rican Elks ; I have compared numerous specimens from both coun- 

 tries, but can discover no appreciable distinction between them. 



The Elks, like most of the other Deer, and especially of the ani- 

 mals which inhabit the cold and mountain regions, present a very con- 

 siderable difference in size, according to the scarcity or abundance of 

 the food which the locality they inhabit affords, and the development 

 of the horns appears to be greatly influenced by this cause ; so that 

 the horns of the animals inhabiting the more barren districts are much 

 less developed than those found in more fertile situations, and I think 

 I have observed this to be the case with both the Russian and the 

 American horns : but on this head naturalists are like to be much 

 misled, as the horns which are imported are generally chosen for their 

 size and perfect development, and the small and less-developed speci- 

 mens are only to be observed in the cargoes of horns which are im- 

 ported for economic purposes. 



These observations are equally applicable to the Rein Deer. 



h. The Rangerine Deer or Reins have a large and well-deve- 

 loped basal branch close on the crown of the horns. 



