262 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
live almost exclusively upon mussels and limpets, the practice exists of 
depositing great numbers of the empty shells on the floor of the huts. 
They do not cast them away as articles of refuse, but deposit a portion in 
the centre of the wigwam, and the remainder in a heap at the entrance. 
In searching the floors of deserted wigwams for relics of native implements 
I have frequently excavated through considerable depths of empty shells. 
In Byron’s narrative of the loss of the ‘ Wager’ (see Burney’s ‘ Voyages’), 
he mentions that, when travelling in a canoe with a party of these natives, 
he once innocently threw the shells of the mussels which he had been 
eating overboard, and was thereupon attacked by the savages, and but for 
the intercession of the women would have suffered the penalty of death 
for his imprudence. He afterwards noticed that his native companions 
carefully preserved their empty shells in the boat until they reached the 
shore, when they placed them in a heap above high-water mark. There is 
no reason whatever to believe that these shells are preserved for any purpose 
of utility; but what the nature of the superstition may be I have not as yet 
been able to ascertain.” 
Ror-DEuR IN DorsursHirE.—I observe from a note in the April 
number of ‘The Zoologist’ (p. 170) that Mr. Dale erroneously considers 
Ireland and America to have been the original homes of the Roe-deer 
introduced into Dorsetshire by the late Earl of Dorchester. There is no 
question about their having been brought to Milton from Scotland. I have 
heard my grandfather, who was Lord Dorchester’s contemporary and next- 
door neighbour, often say so. The mistake in Mr. Dale’s mind as to their 
Irish origin may possibly arise from Lord Dorchester having estates in 
Ireland as well as in Dorsetshire. It is quite certain the Roe has not 
existed in the sister island within historic times, and there is no record of 
it during the quaternary period, although its remains are found associated 
with Cervus megaceros in the British and continental bone-caves of that 
period. With regard to America, although it ranges over temperate and 
southern Europe and Syria, it is not met with in the greater part of 
Russia, being apparently incapable of survival in high latitudes; hence 
it never crossed over from the Old to the New World with the Reindeer 
and the Elk before the submergence of the land at Behring’s Straits. 
These latter are the only two deer common to both continents; but it is 
right to say that naturalists are undecided as to the identity of the American 
Caribou and Moose with the European Reindeer and Elk; the impression 
seems to be gaining ground that they are distinct. In conclusion, I may 
confidently say that no true capreoline type of deer exists in America. 
The Rey. O. P. Cambridge, in his note (p. 209), omits to take into 
consideration that the Roe-deer transferred from this district in 1829 
increased and multiplied far beyond the limits of Charborough; for it is 
