HYBRIDITY OF THE CERVID^. 315 



me that when a female has once bred to a male of anothei* species 

 she becomes debauched and so demoralized that she is inclined 

 to receive anything that comes along, no matter how repulsive 

 he may have been at first. Had not this Acapulco doe first 

 allowed herself to be seduced by the Ceylon buck, which so much 

 resembled her in size, form, and color, and with whom she was 

 so well acquainted, I very much doubt whether she would ever 

 have received the attentions of the Virginia buck, nearly three 

 times her size, and differing from her in so many important par- 

 ticulars. But once having submitted to the Ceylon buck, she 

 coquetted a while with the larger species, and finally submitted. 

 Still I hope she has virtue enough left to return to her own 

 species, now that she has an opportunity. 



While it is undoubtedly true that the sexes of the same species 

 will, as a general rule, associate together when they can, and 

 manifest no inclination to interbreed with a nearly allied species, 

 yet we sometimes see unnatural attachments between opposite 

 sexes of different genera even, in domestication at least, which 

 seem to overcome the natural repugnance which ordinarily pre- 

 vails. 



A remarkable instance of this once occurred in my grounds. 

 When I had but one male elk, with several females, a strong at- 

 tachment grew up between the buck and a two-year old Durham 

 heifer, so that he abandoned the society of the female elk, as the 

 heifer did that of the cows in the same inclosure with which she 

 had been reared, and they devoted themselves exclusively to each 

 other. When they laid down in the shade to ruminate, they 

 were always found close together, and when one got up to feed, 

 the other would immediately follow. They kept away by them- 

 selves, always avoiding the society of all the other animals. 

 Whenever the heifer was in season, which occurred quite regu- 

 larly every month, she accepted the embraces of the elk, without 

 showing an inclination to seek the other cattle ; nor did this seem 

 to be the result of any constraint. This intercourse continued 

 throughout the summer, during the entire growth of the antlers 

 of the elk, but unfortunately he was killed before the rut com- 

 menced with the female elk. It is hardly necessary to state that 

 no impregnation ever occurred from her intercourse with the elk, 

 and so far as this instance may go to establish it, we may con- 

 clude that the constitutional differences of the elk and the cow 

 are so great that they cannot successfully interbreed. 



Probably no intelligent naturalist of the present day would 



