FOREST, AND ITS FAUNA 41 



small roedeer {Capreolus caprea) also occurs, and the 

 musk-deer (Moschus) is found occasionally, though its 

 true home lies further south. The last is an aberrant 

 form, almost hare-like in its habits, and much per- 

 secuted for the sake of the scent gland of the male 

 (see p. 85). 



Most of the animals above mentioned are at least 

 largely forest-feeders. That is, twigs and leaves both 

 of coniferous and deciduous trees, berries, nuts, &c., 

 bulk largely in their diet, and grass is relatively less 

 important. The most northerly forms of those men- 

 tioned are the woodland reindeer and the elk, both 

 very characteristic of the taiga. In North America the 

 woodland reindeer is larger than the tundra form, 

 perhaps because it is better fed, and chiefly haunts 

 marshy ground. Within the forest, as outside of it, it 

 depends largely upon mosses and lichens. In winter it 

 leaves the swamps for the dense forests on the higher 

 ground. 



In the Asiatic taiga some interesting observations 

 on woodland reindeer have recently been made by the 

 members of Mr. Carruthers' expedition to Mongolia. 

 Here, on the Sayansk divide, the members of the 

 expedition found traces of a forest-haunting form 

 which spends the summer in the rhododendron scrub, 

 near the upper limit of the forest. In the winter the 

 animals seek the open hill-tops, which are swept bare 

 of snow by the wind, and there feed upon ' reindeer 

 moss '. 



The elk in both the Old and New Worlds is a true 

 forest animal, compelled to feed upon trees and bushes 

 by the fact that its long legs and short neck prevent it 

 from grazing on the ground, except where the grass is 

 very long. 



