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THE WAPITI. 



body, and of keeping off the troublesome insects. It is also a good runner, and although 

 burdened with its large and widely branched horns, can charge through the forest haunts 

 with perfect ease. In performing this feat, it throws its head well back, so that the horns 

 rest on the shoulders, and shoots through the tangled boughs like magic. Sometimes a 

 Wapiti will make a slight miscalculation in its leap, for Mr. Palliser saw one strike a 



WAPITI. Cervus Canadensls. 



small tree with its forehead so fiercely, that the recoil of the elastic trunk threw 

 Wapiti fairly on its back upon the ice of a frozen stream which it had just crossed. 



The food of the Wapiti consists of grass, wild pea-vine, various branches, and lichens. 

 In winter it scrapes among the snow with its fore-feet, so as to lay bare the scanty 

 vegetation below. When alarmed or excited, it gives vent to its feelings in a peculiar 



