ORDER RUJIINANTIA. 71 



supply of food, preserve theirs till May. Hence it may be 

 taken as a maxim, that all the horns of a palmated shape 

 belong to species of high latitudes, and that those of this 

 class, which we shall notice under the head of Cervus 

 Mexicanus, are, in reality, of animals of cold climates ; 

 nay, more, as we know South America to abound in Deer, 

 that we may look for representatives of the Elk and Rein 

 in the high latitudes of Patagonia. 



The hair of some species of this genus, presents a cha- 

 racter visible also in several antelopes and other rumi- 

 nants ; namely that of being fragile, unlike that of carni- 

 vora and rodentia which is elastic ; they have in general 

 but one sort, the woolly being in small quantity excepting 

 in the Rein. In summer the most predominant colours are 

 lively, in winter darker ; the general livery of the Deer 

 may be considered as of various tones of brown marked 

 with white spots ; this livery is permanent during life in 

 several species, still more general in the Fawns of others, 

 but there are, notwithstanding, others who never bear this 

 distinction. Albinism is not uncommon in the Stag and 

 Fallow-deer. Within the tropics the colours of the resi- 

 dent species never alter, not even when those species are 

 brought to and multiplied in Europe. In some, the males 

 have canines ; in the Muntjaks they become as long as in 

 the Musk. We have seen one who had them double. The 

 pupil of the eye is a lengthened oval ; the feet are perfectly 

 cloven ; the ears are large, and hearing very acute ; the 

 tongue is smooth and long ; and the nose in most species 

 terminates in a muzzle. Their sense of smelling is de- 

 licate ; also in the choice of food they are select, applying 

 the nostrils and occasionally, the opening of the suborbital 

 sinus ; which seems to communicate in some with the 

 olfactory apparatus. This sinus is not found in all, 

 some having only a fold of the skin or even none ; in 

 others it forms a sack, which, according to Mr. White in 

 his Natural History of Selbourne, when speaking of the 



