Royal Physical Society. 357 



mon duck (which has always a disposition to wander), the 

 alpaco, &c, and which may not fall properly under the defini- 

 tion of domesticable animals, but rather form the link between 

 those which are wholly so, and those which are not so at all. 

 At the same time, I confess I prefer the undiluted theory, and 

 hope at some future period to submit to the reader a more 

 detailed explanation of my views and arguments on the sub- 

 ject. 



Before leaving the horns, there is a statement made with re- 

 gard to them by most authors which appears to me to call 

 for revision, and regarding which I shall hope to get some of 

 my new Hudson's Bay friends to make fresh observations. The 

 statement is, that the male sheds his horns in November. Now, 

 it appears to me so opposed to all the usual proceedings of na- 

 ture that she should provide this admirable apparatus for clear- 

 ing away the snow, only to throw it off at the very period when 

 it would come into use, that I cannot bring myself to believe 

 that there is not some error in the statement. I have therefore 

 examined as many authorities as I could, in order to trace from 

 whence this statement originated ; for we often find in Natural 

 History, that a statement originated by some one individual is 

 repeated by subsequent writers without inquiry or consideration. 

 The oldest statement on the subject which I find is that of Pen- 

 nant in his " Arctic Zoology,"* where he says, " They go to rut 

 in September, and the males soon after shed their horns." 

 Hearne, who had ample opportunity of judging from per- 

 sonal observation, makes the following remarks in his jour- 

 ney to the Northern Ocean, 1795 s/f — "The month of Octo- 

 ber is the rutting season with the deer in these parts, and 

 after the time of the courtship is over, the bucks separate 

 from the does : the former proceed to the westward to take 

 shelter in the woods during the winter, and the latter keep out 

 in the barren ground the whole year. This, though a general 

 rule, is not without some exceptions, for I have frequently seen 

 many does in the woods, though they bore no proportion to the 

 number of bucks. This rule, therefore, only stands good re- 

 specting the deer to the north of Churchhill River; for the deer 



*Vol.i.p,26. t P. 197. 



