232 CATALOGUE OF UNGULATES 



Elk ; Moose. 



The distribution of this, the only species here recognised, 

 is co-extensive with that of the genus. 



Largest of living deer, the height at the withers ranging 

 from about 5|to 6| feet. Antlers (fig. 36) with a short beam 

 and the palmation frequently so developed as to obliterate 

 almost all traces of the primitive form, with the exception 

 of a remnant of the cleft of the first fork, in other cases the 

 palmation comparatively slight or wanting ; coat long, coarse, 

 and rather brittle, longest about the neck; general colour 

 varying from yellowish grey to deep blackish brown, with 

 the shanks whitish, the forehead dark chestnut, and the face 

 below the ej^es nearly black, but reddish grey near the 

 muzzle. 



In winter the coat is darker than in summer, especially 

 when first assumed, the colour gradually fading till the 

 spring-change ; it is only in animals of the second or third 

 year that the winter coat attains its deepest sable, as it 

 becomes gradually lighter each succeeding year, till in old 

 males it is more or less grizzly. 



The races may be provisionally distinguished as follows : — 



A. Antlers either palmated or forked. 



a. Shanks light A. a. alces. 



h. Shanlis apparently dark ; palmation of antlers 



somewhat different A. a. hedfordia. 



B. Antlers apparently always palmated. 

 a . Size smaller ; colour duller. 



a'. Muffle triangular A. a. americanus. 



v. Muffle T-shaped A. a. columbce. 



h. Size larger; colour richer A a. gigas. 



A. — Alces alces alces. 



Alces maohlis typicus, Ward, Records of Big Oame, ed. 6, p. 99, 

 1910, ed. 7, p. 99, 1914. 



Including : — 



Alces machlis uralensis, Matschie, Bero-ff. InsUtuts Jagdhundc, 

 vol. ii, p. 155, 1913 (South Urals). 



Alces machlis meridionalis, Matschie, op. clt. p. 156, 1913 (Govern- 

 ment of Samara, Russia). 



Elk. 



Typical locality Sweden. 



Unless one or both of the two forms named by Matschie 



