THE DEER— RED DEER. 



5ii9 



Fawns of the Red Deer make their appearance 

 one, or in rare cases two,at a birth, at the end of May 

 or in June in some lonely, quiet spot in the woods 

 where the vegetation is most dense. The little ones 

 are so weak and helpless during the first three days 

 of life that they cannot move from their place. One 

 may even take them up in his hand. The mothers 

 leave them but rarely and only for a short time dur- 

 ing this period, and even when driven away, move 

 only just far enough to ward off the real or imagi- 

 nary danger by decoying the enemy by means of a 

 sham flight. After the fawn is a week old, it is 

 worse than useless to attempt to capture it without 

 nets. It follows its mother everywhere, and imme- 

 diately crouches in the tall grass whenever she 

 gives a sound of alarm or stamps her fore-foot on the 

 ground. It suckles until the next pairing season, and 

 the mother instructs it from early infancy in the 

 choice of proper food. The female attains maturity 

 in its third year; but the male has to pass through 

 several years more before it attains the right to rule 

 as the "antlered monarch of the forest." Its first 

 horns grow in its seventh month; after that its head 

 decoration changes annually. As a usual thing the 

 spurs of the antlers increase in number annually, but 

 antlers with over twenty regularly shaped spurs have 

 probably been found very rarely. Antlers with 

 eighteen spurs are in- 

 cluded in every consid- 

 erable collection ; and 

 on living Stags antlers 

 with sixteen spurs are 

 no rarity. 



The natural enemies 

 of the Red Deer are the 

 Wolf, the Lynx and the 

 Glutton, and rarely the 

 Bear. The Wolf and 

 Lynx are probably the 

 worst. The former, in 

 packs, pursues the Deer 

 in the deep snow, wor- 

 ries and exhausts it; the 

 latter jumps on its neck 

 from the branches of a 

 tree when it unsuspect- 

 ingly passes under them. 

 The most deadly foe 

 under all circumstances, 

 however, is Man, though 

 now he does not longer 

 pursue and kill the Red 

 Deer in the former reckless and reprehensible man- 

 ner. I believe I may leave the mode of hunting 

 undiscussed, as a detailed description would lead us 

 too far, and those who are interested in the matter 

 can find full accounts of it in other books. At pres- 

 ent this noble sport has been greatly restricted, and 

 the majority of the professional hunters of to-day 

 have never shot a Stag: such quarry is reserved for 

 more aristocratic people. 



The Red Deer is also grievously tormented by 

 some kinds of Gad-flies. These disgusting insects 

 hatch their pestiferous progeny upon the body of 

 the Deer, exactly as they do on the Reindeer, per- 

 forating holes almost entirely through the skin of 

 the poor animals. A species of Louse, which settles 

 in the hair, and Mosquitoes and Gnats also torment 

 this Deer to a great extent. 



Unfortunately the damage wrought by the Red 

 Deer is much greater than the profit it brings; not- 



THE WAPITI. The Wapiti is 



lated to the Stag of the Old World, but 

 well developed antlers are effectively ill 



withstanding the fact that the venison,, skin and 

 antlers bring a high price, and one may highly ap- 

 preciate the pleasure of the hunt, the harm caused 

 by the Deer is not compensated. 



The Barbary In northwestern Africa there is a 

 Deer Related to Deer, which has been separated from 

 the Stag. \]^q Stag under the name of the 

 Barbary Deer {Cervus barbarus), but it has by no 

 means been acknowledged as a distinct species by 

 all authorities, rather being considered only a va- 

 riety, for it comes nearest the Stag in all respects. 

 Of the other species of the sub-genus, the largest of 

 all, the Wapiti of North America {^Cervus canadensis^ 

 remains to be mentioned. 



The Waoiti a ^^® American representative of the genu? 



Noble American Cervus, to which the Stag also belongs, is 



Deer ^^^ Wapiti (Cervus canadensis), sometimes, 



but erroneously, called the American Elk or 



Gray Moose, and which is named Wawaskeesh by the Cree 



Indians and La Biche by the French Canadians. There is 



no more noble species in the 

 entire Deer family than this 

 animal, which is larger than 

 the Stag, to which it bears a 

 close resemblance in many 

 respects. The antlers of the 

 two animals are much alike, 

 but those of the Wapiti are 

 heavier, corresponding to the 

 greater stature of the animal, 

 which stands considerably 

 higher than the Stag, its 

 shoulder height being about 

 fifty-four inches. The hoofs 

 are ^emi- circular in shape 

 and broader than those of the 

 Stag, and the tail is shorter. 

 The general color of the 

 summer coat is a light chest- 

 nut red, which deepens into 

 a brownish hue on the neck 

 and legs, and almost into 

 black on the throat and along 

 the median line of the under 

 surface of the animal. The 

 buttocks are yellowish white, 

 bordered by a dusky band 

 which extends down the pos- 

 terior surface of the hmd- 

 legs. The winter fur is dense 

 and soft and its hues are 

 grayer than those of the 

 summer coat. 



Like its Old World rela- 

 tive the Wapiti has retreated 

 from its former haunts in 

 those sections where human 

 beings have become numer- 

 ous. Its former range in- 

 cluded all of the northern 

 and middle states, and in the 

 western part of the continent it extended south to New Mexico ; 

 but it is now found in few places east of the Rocky Mountains, 

 such as in Montana and the Dakotas. It is still by no means 

 rare in northern California, Oregon and Washington, but it is 

 much more frequent in Canada, where its range extends north 

 to Hudson's Bay. It frequents low grounds, preferably well 

 wooded tracts in the vicinity of marshes, and is quite numer- 

 ous in the clumps of wood bordering on the upper Missouri 

 and its tributaries, and on the Saskatchewan and other Cana- 

 dian rivers; and it feeds on grasses and the young shoots of 

 the willow and poplar. During the mating season the males 

 have fierce combats similar to those engaged in by the Stag'in 

 like conditions, and at this time the male Wapiti emits a pecul- 

 iar noise, resembling the braying of an Ass, beginning with a 

 loud shrill tone and ending in a deep, guttural note. The 

 growth and shedding of the horns is about the same as with 

 the Red Deer, the horns reaching their full growth about the 

 sixth year. In May or June the female, in some convenient 

 thicket, gives birth to a fawn, or in rare cases to two. The 

 development of the young Wapiti is not different from that of 

 the fawns of the European Red Deer. 



The Wapitis, in regions where little molested, associate in 

 large herds, but as such localities are few they are usually 



an American species of Deer nearly re- 

 larger. Its sturdy form and its large and 

 ustrated here. {Cervus canadensis.) 



