72 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



Fallow-deer, can communicate with the nose, and, conse- 

 quently, that they can drink with the nose deeply immersed, 

 without drawing the head out of the water to breathe. 

 This statement has been called in question ; but we have 

 witnessed it in the Great Stag or C. Hippelaphus at Mr. 

 Cross's Menagerie, and the air passing out of the subor- 

 bital sinus, while the animal drank, could be felt by the 

 hand, and even affected a candle. 



The voice of the genus in general, is a disagreable kind 

 of braying. The females have four teats and produce one 

 or two fawns at a time. In temperate regions this takes 

 place in the spring, because the rutting season is in 

 autumn ; but in warm regions, where no winter is felt, 

 the regulating seasons seem to be the monsoons, and the 

 rains produced by the passage of the sun to either tropic. 



In Deer the intellectual instinct is far from contempt- 

 ible ; in this respect the chase of the Stag is very curious. 

 On those species which live more or less isolated, a certain 

 degree of domesticity may be imposed ; but the gregarious, 

 such as the Rein-deer, may be reclaimed altogether ; which 

 is a proof in support of the opinion, that gregarious ani- 

 mals alone can be completely domesticated. Some spe- 

 cies reside exclusively in forests, others in the open plains 

 or even in swampy meadows. 



An artificial arrangement of the species in whatever way 

 it is distributed, is liable to objection ; there are, however, 

 several subordinate groups, distinguishable as well by simi- 

 larity of structure as by the additional advantage of geo- 

 graphical unity, but we must except from the latter par- 

 ticularity those of the higher latitudes, who in common with 

 other animals inhabit certain zones rather than countries. 



The Alcine Group. 

 The Elk. {Cervus Alces. Lin.) Moose of America. 

 This animal is the largest of this genus, being higher at 

 the shoulders than the Horse, its horns weigh sometimes 



