GILPIN — ON THE MAMMALIA OF NOVA SCOTIA. 109 



Art. ly. Ox the Mammalia of Nova Scotia. By J. 

 Bernard Gilpin, A. B., M. D., M. E. C. S. 



{Read December 11, 1871) 



Cervus alces, Linnaeus, Richardson, Dekay, Audubon. 

 A-lce amei'iccmus, Jardine, Baird. 

 Cervus origiiol, Mons. Derville. 

 Cervus lohatus, Agassiz. 



Aloe's onachlis, Ogilvy, Sclayter's list, Zoolog. Gardens, 

 L'orignoi, Cuvier. 



The Moosb, 



The following description v/as taken from a very fine bull 

 exhibited at Halifax about six years ago. Supposing he was dropt 

 in May, he was then three years and four months old, and in full 

 summer coat : — 



He stood between six and seven feet higlifrom the crest of his withers. 

 His height about the length of his body from tip of moufle to taiL Flis 

 head about the length of his depth from withers to brisket, and his legs 

 about one and a quarter longer than this depth. It was evident at a 

 ghance that his great height was caused, as has long been remarked by 

 writers, by the extreme length of the cannon bones (metacarpal and 

 metatarsal) of the legs. These distances were only judged by the eye, 

 but they were done carefully, and will serve for approximations. Mr. 

 Downs informed me that a young bull owned by himself measured, when 

 nearly completing his second year, five feet three inches at the withers. 

 A cow calf measured by myself, (25th July, 1859,) about two months 

 old, gave three feet six inches from top of withers, and four feet three 

 inches from tip of nose to buttock. 



In studying the form of the above-mentioned individual, we found the 

 head very large, owing to the immense overhanging and prehensile 

 upper lip, and huge inflated nostril, hairy with the exception of a naked 

 patch of the size of a crowu piece at its extremity. The forehead slightly 

 convex, sv\ elled directly to form a foundation for the horn, which here 

 was the small trifingered third year horn. The ear Avas large and ovate 

 with a fine tip. A fine bristly mane reached from betwixt the ears to 

 beyond the withers. The back line from the croup to the withers ran 

 nearly straight, but then rose rapioly, forming the withers, and sinking 

 again on joining the head. The older figures give this line as rising 

 rapidly from croup to with-ers, which is a mistake, as also Capt. Hardy's 

 assertion that croup and withers are nearly equal : I think he means 

 croup and head. In the cow-calf I measured there was three inches 

 difference. Here I should think there was at least six. The loins 

 though short are largely developed^ the transverse processes of the 



