40 THE TAIGA, OE CONIFEROUS 



antelopes, especially abundant in Africa, where deer are 

 altogether absent. High up on mountains also, their 

 place tends to be taken by sheep, goats, and allied 

 forms. The Eurasiatic continent, which is rich in 

 forests, is rich also in species of deer, but many of 

 these are confined to tropical and subtropical regions, 

 leaving relatively few to occur in the taiga proper. 

 So far as these forms go there is a close resemblance 

 between the eastern and western halves of the 

 continent. 



The fact that deer are characteristic animals in the 

 taiga is in itself sufficient to enable us to draw certain 

 conclusions in regard to the nature of the region. When 

 ungulates occur in tropical forests they are mostly 

 small animals, with narrow compressed bodies, which 

 allow them to glide through the brushwood. Deer 

 are not only big animals, but the broad, spreading 

 antlers of the male would make rapid movement 

 through a dense wood impossible for him. Some 

 authorities regard these antlers as evidence that deer 

 have only recently taken to wooded regions ; their 

 presence at least excludes the animals from very 

 dense thickets. 



In both hemispheres there are taiga varieties of the 

 reindeer, and both have elk or moose {Alces machlis). 

 In the Asiatic taiga, the red deer {Cervus elaphus) 

 occurs, with closely related forms of similar habits, 

 such as the maral stag (C marcil). Though these forms 

 do not occur in Canada, the wapiti (C canadensis) is 

 a nearly related species. America has in addition the 

 Virginian deer (Cariacus virginianus), belonging to 

 a group numerously represented further south, and 

 distinguished by the great development and curious 

 structure of the antlers. In the Asiatic taiga the 



