148 AMERICAN MIDLAND NATURALIST. 
WAPITI AND DEER. 
Wapiti and deer belong to the same family but to differ- 
ent genera. The former species is much larger than the latter 
ever as numerous. Both species thrive on the 
coarsest kinds of food, dead leaves, twigs, weeds, and other 
coarse plants being both nutritious and palatable for them. 
Therefore their extermination was not due to lack of food. 
apiti, or elk as it is frequently, although incorrectly, 
called, had become scarce in this State previous to 1810 an 
became extinct about 1830. Deer were not uncommon in 
many localities in 1850 and did not become extinct till 1893. 
at enabled deer to survive sixty years longer than 
wapiti with a rapid increase in population? In a general 
way their habits are similar, their food is not essentially 
different and they occupied the same territory. 
According to Roosevelt (’02) “Wapiti are the most gre- 
garious of the deer family." During the mating season, which 
is in September, they congregate in large herds. They are 
highly polygamous and the males fight violently for the fe- 
males and become very noisy. 
eer sometimes band together but do not gather into 
large and compact herds under the leadership of a single old 
buck as do wapiti, nor do they become as noisy. In a region 
where they are much hunted, they hide away during the day- 
time in dense thickets or inaccessible swamps. They are 
more prolific than wapiti, begining to breed at an earlier age 
and frequently producing two young at a time. 
eer are timid, fleet and wary. Wapiti are usually shy, 
but loose all their wariness at mating time; even at other 
times they may exhibit surprising stupidity and make no at- 
tempt to escape from danger. 
n short, deer survived longer than wapiti because they 
are smaller, more timid, less gregarious and more prolific. 
e permanent survival of wapiti in the wild condition in 
such a region as this State affords was out of the question. 
If any remained at the present time, they would be an intol- 
erable nuisance. Deer might have been preserved in rugged 
or marshy localities, as they are in many of the eastern states, 
had they been given adequate protection. Clearing away the 
forests, draining swamps and placing the land under culti- 
vation left them without hiding places and they became easy 
prey for hunters. 
— namely the man-relation. 
THE LARGER CARNIVORA. 
The first of the Carnivora to disappear was the couguar. 
