CERVUS. 



And who is furnished also with a goad for 

 occasional applications. One of these 

 deer has been known several times to 

 draw its sledge and owner a journey of 

 fifty miles without stopping ; an exertion, 

 however, which is almost uniformly fatal 

 to it. To a progress of thirty miles with- 

 out halting it is a competent, without any 

 injury. The constant mode of travelling in 

 Lapland in winter is by means of the deer 

 and sledge. It is extremely speedy, yet 

 at the same time inconvenient and dan- 

 gerous, and can be accomplished only 

 when the snow is frozen and glazed. The 

 favourite food of this animal is a species 

 of moss, which, in Lapland, covers the 

 face of the country through large tracts, 

 and to obtain which, in winter, the horns 

 of the rein deer enable it to dig through 

 the snow with great facility. The atten- 

 tion paid by the Laplander to these ani- 

 mals constitutes his principal occupation. 

 In the rigour of winters they are shelter- 

 ed and nursed by him ; in the short sum- 

 mers they are led to the banks of the 

 lakes and rivers, or to the tops of the 

 mountains, where they may brouse on 

 the^r favourite lichen ; which, from the 

 fulness and sweetness of the pasture, sup- 

 plies all the richness and variety of his 

 temperate banquets, fig. 2 



C. elaphus, or the stag. This animal is 

 found in nearly all the temperate climates 

 of Europe and Asia. It is also found in 

 North America, but attains its largest 

 size in Siberia. From the branchiness of 

 its horns, the elegance of its form and 

 movements, and the strength of its limbs, 

 it deservedly attracts particular admira- 

 tion, and may be regarded as a principle 

 embellishment of the forest. The stag 

 is remarkable for a fine eye and an acute 

 sense of smelling. Its ear, also, is ex- 

 quisitely sensible, and musical sounds ap- 

 pear to possess over him the power of 

 exciting complacency, if not rapture. His 

 enemies not unfrequently employ the 

 shepherd's pipe to decoy him to his de- 

 struction ; and Mr. Playford, in his " In- 

 troduction to Music," states, that he once 

 met a herd of twenty stags near Uoyston, 

 which readily followed the tones of a 

 violin and bagpipe, played by their con- 

 ductors, but stopped whenever the music 

 was suspended. Their whole progress 

 from Yorkshire to Hampton-court was 

 attended, and it was supposed extremely 

 facilitated, by these sounds. The Stag is 

 simple and unsuspicious, and employs no 

 arts to avoid detection or pursuit, until af- 

 ,* er having received considerable molesta- 

 tion. His food consists, in winter, of 



moss and bark ; in spring, of tire cat- 

 kins of willow and hazel, and the flowert 

 and buds of cornel; in summer, of the 

 grain of rye and the tender shoots of the 

 aider ; in autumn, of the leaves of bram- 

 bles, and the flowers of heath and broom. 

 He eats with slowness, and ruminates 

 with some considerable effort,, in conse- 

 quence of the distance between the first 

 stomach and the mouth. In March, ge- 

 nerally, he sheds his horns, which are not 

 completely renewed till August. It will 

 live to between thirty and forty years of 

 age, and was, formerly, amidst the other 

 vulgar errors of antiquity, supposed capa- 

 ble of attaining most extraordinary dura- 

 tion. The stag is supposed to have been 

 introduced from France into England 

 where it has latterly been made to give 

 vay to the fallow deer, an animal more 

 gentle in its manners, and more valuable 

 as food. In some parts of Scotland the 

 stag is yet to be found in its original wild 

 state. 



C. dama, or the fallow deer. This ani- 

 mal is, in general, much smaller than the 

 stag ; but in Spain is nearly equally 

 large : in France and Germany, it is rare- 

 ly to be found, and it has never been 

 known to have existed in America : it has 

 the elegance of the stag, connected with 

 a much more tractable disposition : it 

 sheds its horns, which, as in the stag spe- 

 cies, are peculiar to the male, every year ; 

 is stated to live to the age of twenty years, 

 and arrives at its maturity in three : it is 

 by no means fastidious in its food. Fig. 4. 

 C. capreolus, or the roe. This is the 

 smallest of the animals of this class in 

 Europe, and generally of a reddish-brown 

 colour : it is graceful, sprightly, and cou- 

 rageous, particularly cleanly, and de- 

 lighting in dry and mountainous situa- 

 tions : it leaves a strong scent behind it, 

 but possesses such arts of defence, that, 

 by various doublings, and intermixtures of 

 past with present emanations from its 

 body, it frequently baffles the most ex- 

 perienced dogs, and remains in a state of 

 security while the full pack passes almost 

 close by its retreat, distinguishing it nei- 

 ther by sight nor smell: it differs from 

 the stag in the constancy of its attach- 

 ments, and the parents and their young 

 constitute a family, never associating with 

 strangers : two fawns are generally pro- 

 duced by the female at a birth, one of 

 each sex, which, living together, form a 

 mutual and invincible attachment. When 

 a new family is to be nursed, the former 

 is driven off to provide for itself, but re- 

 turns again after a certain interval to the 



