MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. ZQ 



" red root," a broad-leaved grass and tender lichen and ferns. In the fall, 

 buckberry, chestnuts, acorns, beech-nuts and rhododendron form the bulk of 

 their food. In winter, on dead oak leaves, buds, sweet fern. When the snow 

 crusts they gather in herds and make paths in high laurel and thick hemlock 

 timber. 



Description of species. — The northeastern deer is a larger animal than the 

 Virginia deer, with heavier, coarser horns and teeth, and showing a great 

 contrast between the "red" summer and "gray" winter coats. In the 

 southern deer the summer and winter coats are not so contrasted, always re- 

 taining the reddish cast. No measurements are now available that would 

 give a proper idea of the average differences in size. 



Genus Cervus Linnaeus, Systema Naturae, 1758, voll i, p. 66. 

 Eastern Wapiti, or " Elk." Cervus canadensis (Erxleben). 



1777. \_Cervus elaphus"] canadensis Erxleben, Syst. Regn. Anim., Vol. i, 



P- 305- 



1822. Cervus canadensis Desmarest, Mammalogie, Vol. 2, p. 433. 



Type locality. — Eastern Canada. 



Faunal distribution. — Canadian and Transition zones, sometimes descend- 

 ing into the Upper Austral. 



Distribution in Pa. and N. y. — Numerous up to the beginning of the 

 19th century in the entire Pa. AUeghenian mountain system east of the 

 Allegheny River ; rare in the Blue Ridge and Cumberland ranges ; once 

 numerous on the Pocono plateau. Driven occasionally by stress of weather, 

 beasts of prey and man into the lowlands of the southern Allegheny, Susque- 

 hanna and Delaware River valleys, and the highlands of northern New Jersey, 

 "where, in early historic times, it may have voluntarily made its habitat at cer- 

 tain seasons. Now extinct in our limit^. Numerous localities in Pennsylva- 

 nia bearing the name of " Elk " in various combinations, indicate that it was 

 formerly known either as an abundant resident or as a straggler in nearly 

 -every part of the state. Its remains show that it was formerly found in the 

 Delaware Valley as far south as Bucks Co.* in Penna., and Mercer Co. in 

 N. J., during the existence there of aboriginal man. (See list of fossil 

 species.) 



Habits, etc. — The favorite haunts of the AUeghenian wapiti in Pennsylvania 

 -were the forest-covered mountain elevations where open glades or savannas 

 and old beaver meadows were surrounded by the primeval forest. Where 

 these features were combined in the vicinity of a " lick " or saline spring the 



* The Durham Cave, Riegelsville, Bucks Co. remains are probably recent, but may have 

 .belonged more properly to Postpliocene age. 



