ORDER RUMINANTIA. 67 



shall draw our principal observations, and add such re- 

 marks from other quarters, or from personal research, as 

 may increase our knowledge on this subject. The word 

 Deer is derived from a Teutonic root, or the Greek ©»5§, 

 variously pronounced and written, at different times and by 

 different nations. Dier, Thier, Thur, Anglo-Saxon Deor, 

 designating in general an animal, afterwards confined more 

 especially to ruminants ; in the English and German to 

 Cervine ; and in some of the Sclavonic dialects to the ancient 

 Urus, or the Wild Ox. The genus, comprehended under 

 this denomination, consists of those animals, the males of 

 which have deciduous horns or antlers, destitute of a horny 

 sheath. In general they are remarkable for the elegance of 

 their forms, the lightness of their proportions, and the 

 velocity of their movements. The legs are slender and firm, 

 the body round and compact, the neck long, and the head 

 well shaped. Their look is meek, yet confident, wild, yet 

 curious; the colours of their coat, clean, brilliant, and 

 agreeable. Hence, Deer have been at all times interesting 

 to mankind, and the chase of them the object of the great 

 and wealthy. 



The genus is extended over Europe, Asia, and America ; 

 it is found in Northern Africa, and in most of the great 

 islands of the Indian Ocean. The Portuguese introduced 

 Deer in the Isle of France, and the British in Jamaica, and 

 the latter, doubtless, soon will import them into New Hol- 

 land. We have already given some general notions of the 

 characters which are common to all the ruminants, and need 

 therefore only refer to those distinctions which separate 

 them from the other genera. The most remarkable of these 

 are the horns; that is, those osseous productions of the 

 forehead which fall and are reproduced successively, and 

 which, with the exception of the Rein-deer, are the exclusive 

 property of the males. The common opinion, however, of 

 the annual shedding of the horns in the Deer, must be re- 



