AMERICAN DEER. 87 



The Wapiti is called the Elk in most parts of North 

 America, excepting the Hudson Bay districts, where it 

 is called the Red-deer : a confusion of names which has 

 given rise to equal confusion in the various accounts 

 and descriptions of the animal. Similar misnomers are 

 of constant occurrence in North America, though I must 

 confess that even in India I have heard the large deer 

 of the Neilgherries also called elk. 



The Wapiti move together in herds, keeping in covert 

 during the daytime, and likewise when not feeding. 

 They are not so cautious and watchful as either the 

 moose or caribou, and are consequently less difficult of 

 approach. Their principal food is grass and the young 

 shoots of the willow and poplar. The flesh is coarse, 

 but the skin is more valued as leather than either moose 

 or caribou hide. 



The common Deer of America (Cervus Virginianus), 

 though very generally called " Red-deer," is not to be 

 supposed as at all similar to that inhabiting the High- 

 lands of Scotland. In its slight and graceful form it 

 more nearly approaches the fallow-deer, but the horns 

 differ widely in form and growth from those of either. 



The principal stems bend backwards from the base, 

 and then curve forwards and outwards, with from three 

 to five points or tines on each, the basal ones springing 

 from the anterior face of the horn, the remainder from 



