80 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



much higher at the shoulder than Fallow-deer. In large 

 males the horns are sometimes above four feet long, in the 

 females they are constantly smaller, and the palmated parts 

 narrower. There is, however, no species of Deer whose 

 horns vary to such an extent ; it is difficult to meet two 

 alike. In general they are at first thrown back from the 

 forehead, and then curve with a considerable sweep for- 

 wards. Over the face they bear each two branches, mostly 

 palmated, but also often ending in simple points, or in 

 several irregular processes: from the back part of the curves 

 other snags arise, or a flattened palmed termination takes 

 place. The figure of the animal, compared with other Deer 

 is heavy and low, resembling a calf; the neck is short; the 

 head carried straight forward in a line with the back; the 

 legs short and stout, and the hoofs very broad, in large 

 individuals not less than those of an Alderney cow, and 

 the tail short ; the hair is of two kinds, one close the 

 other woolly ; under the throat it is long, and in winter 

 long hairs more or less whitish spread over the body. 

 The primitive colours of the Rein seem to have been 

 white round the mouth, horns, and shoulders, passing 

 in a bar to the flanks, rump, under tail, and round the 

 hoofs ; at least in the domestic races, though of every 

 colour, these marks are most usually observable. Per- 

 fectly white is common among the Wild Deer of Green- 

 land and Siberia; across the face from eye to eye, from 

 the shoulder-blade over the loins, and upon the an- 

 terior part of the legs, there is often a dark chocolate 

 brown colour, and on the back the white passes to the 

 dark by an intermixture of reddish. The belly and inside 

 of the limbs is generally white, and the females have less 

 of that colour than the males. The fawn has no spots on 

 the skin, but is brownish, though sometimes white. The 

 protuberances of the horns are visible at its birth, and 

 in fifteen days they are an inch high. In the Russian 



