ORDER RUMINANTIA. 101 



after their muskets, but with so much precipitation and 

 noise as to alarm the game, which now again put his head 

 above water, and seeing the canoe, sprang forward towards 

 the bank, with his mouth full of weeds. At this instant he 

 was fired at, but he gained the shore very near us and 

 dashed with elevated antlers into cover, as was thought 

 unhurt : he appeared quite black, with large expanded 

 horns, but no further observations could be made. We 

 were then informed that at this period (August) they are 

 often killed while feeding under water, but the canoe must 

 be so placed as to glide with the current and without noise 

 close to them, the game only raising its head to breathe from 

 time to time, take no notice of an object which appears 

 motionless. 



On the banks of the Missouri they are said to live in 

 small families of ten or twelve individuals, headed by an 

 old male, who is reported to be monogamous ; the rest, be- 

 side the Hind, being calves and semi-adults. The females 

 are capable of procreating very early, one born in England 

 having produced a calf at eighteen months old. This 

 circumstance militates against the opinion of the Indians 

 respecting their longevity. The males do not bellow, but 

 when they are alarmed or excited, send forth a loud pierc- 

 ing whistle, to all appearance from the suborbital slit. 

 They mew their horns in the latter days of February, or dur- 

 ing March, and require little more than three months to 

 recover them, notwithstanding their enormous size. 



The North-western Stag. (C. Occidentalis.) It seems 

 that a species of stag resides in the utmost western limits of 

 North America, beyond the rocky mountains, so nearly 

 allied to the foregoing, as to appear only a variety of Ca- 

 nadensis, or of the European Elaphus, or even Perrault's 

 Canadian Stag. We are in possession of a drawing from a 

 sketch representing this animal, made by a Voyageur, who 

 stated it to be of the size of La Biche, with one, two, or 



