1880.] Domestication of certain Ruminants and Aquatic Birds. 395 
in the moose, and not beyond nine months in the caribou, from 
hypertrophy of the heart; owing, in my opinion, in great meas- 
ure to the impossibility of providing the proper kind and quality 
of arboreal food, and somewhat also to the climate and the limited 
range given them ina zoological garden. C. canadensis and C. 
virginianus have done well. We have bred a number of each and 
have lost none from natural causes, except some four or five fawns 
from improper care when first born. Of C. Zeucurus we have had 
but one specimen. The South American deer seem to be con- 
stitutionally weak. We have bred and raised several of C. campes- 
tris, as also of C. aristotelis and C. dama. In C. axis the 
female has had two abortions, and is now, I think, too old to breed. 
My experience with our prong-horn (A. americana) has also 
been similar to yours—they all die speedily from diarrhcea or 
hypertrophy of the heart; change of food and tonics seem to have 
no effect upon them. We have had some ten or twelve individu- 
als, none of which lived more than fifteen months. 
The only possible apology for so long a letter is the great inter- 
est of the subject, which I trust you will accept as sufficient to 
warrant the liberty, and I shall be glad to consider myself as 
under obligation for any result of your experience in the domesti- 
cation of the mule deer, which you are at liberty to assist me 
with. I am, with much respect, your obedient servant, 
ARTHUR E. Brown. 
I have just been much disappointed in losing a fawn of the 
Javan musk deer or Chevrotain ( Tragulus javanicus). The mother 
refused from the start to take any care of it, and I succeeded in 
keeping it alive for three days, by hand, but it was too delicate to 
stand handling and has just died. The little thing weighed less 
Da three ounces, the adults being only about ten inches high.— 
-B B. 
OTTAWA, ILLINOIS, November roth, 1879. 
ARTHUR E. Brown, Esq., Gen’l Supt. Zod. Soc. Philadelphia : 
Dear Sir :—I am just in receipt of your very kind and interest- 
ing letter of the 7th inst., and hasten to reply and thank you. 
I have received no more mule deer since my book was published, 
and about that time I lost my last of that species and also of the 
Columbia deer (C. columbianus), I am satisfied that they cannot 
be successfully domesticated in my grounds. They either find 
something which does not agree with them or something is want- 
