ORDER RUMINANTIA. 97 



new species, when the Red-deer of Virginia must have 

 been known to very many in the Southern States, and the 

 Canadian was still often found in the eastern ? We saw 

 the head of one shot two years before on Long Island, and 

 actually met the animal in his native forests about sixty 

 miles up the river Chaudiere, and therefore on the confines 

 of Main, where, it is true, the Canadians named him Ori- 

 gnal, ii e., Moose. Mr. Skudder, keeper of the Museum 

 of New York, and a sound observer, was not, however, of 

 the general opinion ; he had possessed several Wapiti from 

 the interior. We examined one together, and he did not 

 hesitate to consider it as the same with the Canadian. 

 The conclusion which appears nearest the truth is that they 

 are varieties resulting from circumstances; the Canadian 

 animal living in deep forests and rocky mountains, the 

 Wapiti on the Savannahs of the interior. Upon a strict 

 comparison of them both, we find that they are about one- 

 third larger than the Stag of Europe ; but the Wapiti by 

 the side of the Canadian is heavier in body, his legs shorter, 

 his horns longer, the antlers more serpentine, and the lowest 

 or brow antler more bent over the face ; the beam is less 

 pearled, and the summits, in well-grown adults, bifurcated. 

 The Canadian appears somewhat inferior in size, propor- 

 tionably higher on the legs, smaller and shorter in the trunk ; 

 his hair is much more shaggy; the horns are thicker; the 

 antlers usually shorter, in simple curves upwards ; the beam 

 browner and more pearled ; the summit trifurcated, and 

 somewhat flattened. All these disparities may be explained 

 by the difference of the localities which they inhabit, the 

 forest and the plain. 



It is not that the Wapiti has no winter coat when his face 

 is covered with a woolly kind of hair, the space on the but- 

 tocks is whitish, and the back, neck, and sides, of a red- 

 brown colour ; but these colours are less intense, and the 

 legs likewise are not so dark as the Canadians. These 



