158 ON THE HIPPELAPHUS. 



to that of those learned naturalists who have written on the subject, it is be- 

 cause I have over them the advantage of having travelled in countries, and 

 met with species, which they had no opportunity of observing. 



" Quin etiam Hippelaphus satis jubae summis continet armis, qui a forma 

 " equi et cervi, qaam habet compositam, nomen accepit, quasi equicervus 

 " dici meruisset — tenuissimo jubae ordine a capite ad summos armos cri- 

 " nescit. Proprium equicervo villus qui ejus gutturi modo barbae dependet. 

 " Gerit cornua utrumque, excepta fcemina — et pedes habet bisulcos. 



" Magnitudo equicervi non dissidet a cervo. Gignitur apud Arachotas, 

 " ubi etiam boves sylvestres sunt, qui differunt ab urbanis, quantum inter sui 

 " urbanos et sylvestres interest. Sunt colore atro, corpore robusto, rictu 

 " leviter adunco : cornua gerunt resupinatiora. Equicervo cornua sunt 

 " Capreoe proxima."— Hisf. Anim. lib. xi. cap. i. Trans, of Theodore Gaza. 



Most of the Mammifera described by Aristotle, having been found in all 

 the countries of Europe, it was the more natural to believe this way the 

 case, also with regard to the Hippelaphus ; considering also that animals of 

 this kind generally spread over the whole of a continent, and that moreover 

 the description given by the Macedonian naturalist, accorded in many res- 

 pects with one of the species most common among us, {Cervus Elaphus, Linn.) 



Besides it has been remarked, that the species of Deer were singularly 

 modified by the nature of the soil on which they lived, and that the same 

 animal, after quitting barren mountains to inhabit fertile vallies, soon ex- 

 changed its rugged appearance, lost its hair more or less dark, and even 

 put off its ensemble, sometimes thick and heavy, to assume forms of more 

 elegance, colours of lighter hues, and faculties more exquisite. 



It had also been observed that age operated so complete a metamorpho- 

 sis, that the same individual was not to be recognized when old. 



