ORDER RUMINANT1A. 129 



beauty, sketched at New York, was in the fifth year of his 

 age ; the horns were smaller than the specimen figured by 

 M. F. Cuvier, the snags more slender and developed ; and 

 on the croup were two crescents marked by the friction of 

 the horns on those parts, from some habit in the animal. 



The fawn is of a lively fulvous-brown, marked during the 

 first year with numerous white spots. They rut in Novem- 

 ber and December, when the neck of the Buck swells, and 

 gestation lasts near nine months, the females dropping 

 two or even three fawns. The Bucks lose their attire about 

 the same period as the Stags of Europe ; they bray but with 

 less noise, and live in herds from the southern confines of 

 the great lakes and the St. Lawrence to the Floridas, and 

 westward, in the interior to an immense distance. Accord- 

 ing to Professor Harlan, this species displays great enmity 

 towards the Rattlesnake, which it contrives to crush, by 

 leaping, with the fore-feet conjoined, and dropping per- 

 pendicularly on the serpent, bounding away again with 

 great lightness, and repeating this attack till the enemy is 

 killed. 



Dr. Say notices a variety found at Eugineer's cantonment 

 in the interior of North America, marked with a white 

 triangle on the front of all the feet, the point upwards, and 

 a black mark on the lower lip strongly characterized, and 

 not so far back as the angle of the mouth as in the former : 

 its dimensions are somewhat less, and the weight one 

 hundred and fifteen pounds. 



The Virginian Deer appears to be Lawson's Fallow-deer, 

 and sometimes the Red-deer of the United States, though 

 Mr. Warden applies this name to the Wapiti. The skin is 

 used for gloves, and the native Indians of the interior dress 

 them in an excellent manner to make leggings, jackets, and 

 maukissons. It appears also by the mummies dug out of 

 the saltpetre caves of the interior, that anciently they 

 wrapped their dead in them. 



