CHAPTER XVIII. 



THE DEER. 



THE CERVID7E — THEIR ANTLERS — THE PROCESS OF GROWTH OF THE ANTLER — THE SHEDDING OF 

 THE VELVET — HABITS CF THE CERVID/E — THE VARIOUS GENERA — THE ELK OF THE OLD 

 WORLD OR THE MOOSE OF THE NEW WORLD — THE ELK OF SWEDEN — THE MOOSE OF CANADA 

 — HABITS — MODES OF HUNTING. 



NO group in the whole order can be more easily described than 

 the family Cervid^E. They are ruminant animals, with antlers 

 or horns that are shed. Compared with this striking character- 

 istic, all other distinguishing features are superfluous. The Deer form 

 an extensive group of animals equally adapted for inhabiting forests or 

 open plains, the Arctic regions, or the Tropics. They range, in fact, 

 over the whole of the great continents of the globe, with the one striking 

 exception of Africa, where they are only found on the shores of the 

 Mediterranean. 



The distinctive characteristic, then, of the animals of this group con- 

 sists in the texture, shape, and manner of growth of their frontal pro- 

 tuberances. These projections, which are called antlers, and not horns, 

 are bony, solid, and more or less branching ; they are also devoid of the 

 horny casing which exists in all hollow-horned Ruminants. They fall 

 off, and are renewed periodically every year up to a certain age. 



In the adult individual the antler is composed of a cylindrical or flat- 

 tened stem, according to the genus, which is called the brow-antler, from 

 which branch out at intervals slighter and shorter additions, called tines 

 or branches. The base of the brow-antler is surrounded with a circle of 

 small bony excrescences, which afford a passage to the blood-vessels in- 

 tended to provide for the growth of the antler; these are called burrs. 



The whole process of the growth, shedding, and renewal of the 

 ant.ers is so peculiar, and so entirely different to anything which we see 

 'n any other animal, that a somewhat lengthy account of the process is 



