130 



MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE. 



[Dkkr. 



that offers, when it bounds away for the forest, the 

 deep recesses of which afford it a welcome refuge. 

 Such are its cunning and alertness, and so prompt 

 is it with expedients when pressed by danger, that, 

 as Sir Stamford Raffles informs us, "it. is a common 

 Malay proverb, to designate a great rogue to be as 

 cunning as a kanchil ;" and he adds, of this cunning 

 many instances are related by the natives. "If 

 taken in a noose laid for it, the kanchil, when the 

 hunter arrives, will stretch itself out motionless, and 

 feign to be dead ; and if, deceived by this manoeuvre, 

 he disengage the animal, it seizes the moment to 

 start on its legs, and disappears in an instant. A 

 still more singular expedient is mentioned, viz. that 

 when closely pursued by dogs, the kanchil will 

 sometimes make a bound upwards, hook itself on 

 the branch of a tree by means of its bent tusks, and 

 there remain suspended till the dogs have passed 

 beneath." In vigilance, activity, and cunning, if 

 these statements be but partially true, the kanchil 

 surpasses the rest of the group ; none indeed, except- 

 ing this, have gained a reputation for these qualities, 

 though all are light-limbed, free, and vigorous. 



Among the species to be. erased from the genus 

 Moschus, are the Guevi, or pigmy antelope, or Sene- 

 gal (Antilope pigmsea), regarded by Buffon as a 

 chevrotain ; and the Moschus Americanus, and M. 

 delicatulus of South America, which are the young 

 of one of the deer of that country. The Moschus 

 pygmseus, Linn., is the young of an antelope. The 

 Moschus Guineensis, Brisson and Gmelin, is also 

 most probably the young of an antelope. As we 

 have said, however, Africa produces one species 

 at least of the genus Moschus, of which a perfect 

 skin and skeleton are in the museum of the Zool. 

 Soc. Lond. 



The African musk-deer (Moschus aquaticus, Ogil- 

 by, ' Proceeds. Zool. Soc' 1844, p. 35) very much 

 resemble the meminna, but is larger, being about 

 midway in size between that, species and the Moschus 

 moschiferous. Its general colour is a deep rich 

 brown, with white spots and markings, nearly similar 

 to those of the meminna, but with the throat-marks 

 as in the napu or kanchil. This interesting species 

 is a native of Sierra Leone, where it lives on the 

 borders of rivers, and takes freely to the water. 



CERVID.E, OR THE DEER TRIBE. 



The animals of this great group, celebrated for 

 their beauty, vigour, and speed, are spread very ex- 

 tensively, each quarter of the globe having its own 

 peculiar species. To this universality of distribution 

 there are, however, certain exceptions ; none are 

 found in Australia, and none in the southern and 

 central regions of Africa, their place in the latter 

 regions being: supplied by the giraffe and hosts of 

 antelopes. Hills of moderate elevations, wide plains, 

 and forests, are the localities to which these fleet- 

 limbed creatures give preference ; none tenant the 

 peaked ridges of the mountain-top, where the cha- 

 mois and musk-deer find a congenial abode. They 

 delight in a wide range of country, and trust to their 

 swiftness of flight for safety. Most herd together in 

 troops; some few live singly. It may be observed 

 that, in general, their body is round and stout; 

 their limbs long, sinewy and powerful ; their neck 

 long, and very muscular; their head small, and 

 carried high ; their eyes large and full ; their ears 

 ample. 



Many species have suborbital sinuses (or lachry- 

 mal sinuses), but not all. With respect to these 

 sinuses, or fissures below the eyes, in so many both 

 of the deer and antelopes, we may here remark that 

 their use is not understood : they have nothing to do 

 with respiration, being mere follicles or pits in the 

 skin, having no communication with the interior 

 of the nasal passages. They secrete a peculiar 

 unctuous fluid, exuding more abundantly at certain 

 seasons than at others, when their edges become 

 very tumid, and are incapable of being closed to- 

 gether as at other times. The animals often apply 

 them to objects near them, widely opening them at 

 the same moment, which they do also when irritated 

 or under excitement. In several species they are 

 greatly developed, and no doubt serve some im- 

 portant purpose in the animal economy. In most 

 species the muzzle, which is small, is flat and 

 naked ; in some, as the elk and rein-deer, it is large 

 and hairy, and the upper lip is prehensile. The 

 females have four teats. 



Throughout all the species the males are furnished 

 with antlers, commonly called horns, which are lost 

 and renewed yearly, increasing in the size, and the 

 number of their branches, at each renewal until a 

 certain period. They are seated upon an osseous 

 peduncle or footstalk rising from each frontal bone, 

 at its central point of ossification : these peduncles 

 are enveloped in skin. It is not till the spring, or 

 beginning of the second year, that the first pair of 

 horns begin to make their appearance. At this 

 epoch a new process commences ; the skin envelop- 

 ing the peduncles swells, its arteries enlarge, tides 



of blood rush to the head, and the whole system ex- 

 periences a fresh stimulus. The antlers are now 

 budding, for on the top of these footstalks the 

 arteries are depositing layers of osseous matter, 

 particle by particle, with great rapidity ; as they 

 increase the skin increases in an equal ratio, still 

 covering the budding antlers, and continues so to 

 do, until they have acquired their due development 

 and solidity. This skin is a tissue of blood-vessels, 

 and the courses of the large arteries from the head 

 to the end of the antlers are imprinted on the latter 

 in long furrows which are never obliterated. In 

 ordinary language, the skin investing the antlers is 

 termed velvet, being covered with a fine pile of 

 close short hair. Suppose, then, the antlers of the 

 young deer now duly grown, and still invested with 

 this vascular tissue ; but the process is not yet. 

 complete. While this tender velvet remains the 

 deer can make no use of his newly-acquired 

 weapons, which are destined to bear the brunt of 

 many a conflict with his compeers : it must there- 

 fore be removed, but without giving a sudden check 

 to the current of blood rolling through this extent 

 of skin, lest by directing the tide to the brain, or 

 some internal organ, death be the result. The 

 process then is this : — as soon as the antlers are 

 complete (according to the age of the individual), 

 the arteries at their base, where they join the per- 

 manent footstalk (always covered with skin), begin 

 to deposit around it a burr, or rough ring of bone, 

 with notches, through which the great arteries still 

 pass. Gradually, however, the diameter of these 

 openings is contracted by the deposition of addi- 

 tional matter ; till at length the great arteries are 

 compressed as by a ligature, and the circulation is 

 effectually stopped. The velvet now dies for want 

 of the vital fluid ; it shrivels, dries, and peels off in 

 shreds, the animal assisting in getting rid of it by 

 rubbing his antlers against the trees. They are 

 now firm, hard, and white ; and the stag bears them 

 proudly, and brandishes them in defiance of his 

 rivals. From the burr upwards, these antlers are 

 now no longer part and parcel of the system ; 

 they are extraneous, and held only by their mecha- 

 nical continuity with the footstalk on which they 

 were placed ; hence their deciduous character, for 

 it is a vital law that the system shall throw off 

 all parts no longer intrinsically entering into the 

 integrity of the whole. An absorptive process 

 soon begins to take place just beneath the burr, 

 removing particle after particle, till at length the 

 antlers are separated and fall by their own weight, 

 or by the slightest touch, leaving the living end 

 of the footstalk exposed and slightly bleeding. 

 This is immediately covered with a pellicle of skin, 

 which soon thickens and all is well. The return of 

 spring brings with it a renewal of the whole process 

 with renewed energy, and a finer pair of* antlers 

 branches forth. 



The common stag begins to acquire his antlers in 

 the spring, and loses them early in the spring succeed- 

 ing. His first antlers (second spring) are straight, 

 small, and simple: he is now termed a Brocket. 

 The next pair are larger, and have a brow antler 

 directed forwards from the main stem, sometimes 

 with one or two small branches above. The third 

 pair of antlers has two forward stem branches be- 

 sides the brow antlers, and one or two snags at the 

 top. The fourth pair have the brow and stem antlers 

 increased and more snags ; the fifth and sixth pairs 

 exhibit still greater development, and an increase in 

 the number of snags. Any disturbance in the system 

 produces a corresponding deterioration in the form 

 and proportions of the horn. Our figures develop 

 the progress of the successive annual horns in the 

 stag or red-deer, and in the fallow deer. The horns 

 are from the left side. 



Fig. 579 (Stag) :— I, Horn of first growth ; 2, 3, 

 4, ditto of second; 5, 6, of third and fourth; 7, of 

 fifth; 8, 9, of the sixth growth; 10, 11, 12, the 

 seventh and subsequent growths;, the horns being 

 at their maximum. Fig. 580 represents horns of 

 the Wapiti deer : a, horn produced in unfavourable 

 circumstances, in confinement; b, horn of the same 

 animal the year afterwards, and finely branched. 

 Fig. 581 (Fallow-deer) :— 1, Horn of the first growth ; 

 2, 3, 4, horn of the second ; 5, 6, 7, horns of the 

 third growth; 8, 9, horns of the fourth; 10, 

 11, 12, 13, horns of the fifth and sixth growth. 

 Fig. 578 shows the horns of a fallow-deer in an 

 unnatural state, and not shed at the proper time 

 (Cervo evirato). 



The Cervidae are divided by Col. Hamilton Smith 

 into the following sections, which many naturalists 

 have adopted, and which seem to us very natural. 

 1, Alee, or the Elk group ; 2, Rangifer, or the Rein- 

 deer group ; 3, Dama, or the Fallow-deer group ; 4, 

 Elaphus, or the Stag group ; 5, Rasa, or the Sam- 

 bur-deer group • 6, Axis, or the Axis-deer group ; 

 7, Capreolus, or the Roebuck group ; 8, Mazama, 

 or the American Fallow group.; 9, Sabulo, or the 

 Guazu or Brocket group of America; 10, Styloceros, 

 or the Muntjacks. 



]. Alce. — Horns sessile, more or less subdivided, 

 without either basilary or mesial antlers, but termi- 

 nated by a vast palmation, designated on its external 

 border only. 



585, 586.— The American Elk. or Moosk- 

 Deek. 



(Alces Americanus ; Cervus Alces, Linn.). The 

 Elks are the largest of the Cervidas, and are distin- 

 guished by the broad palmation of their antlers, 

 furnished with numerous digitations on their outer 

 edge only ; a large isolated branch springs from the 

 stem, which latter is thick and short, and begins im- 

 mediately to expand ; the head is heavy, the ears 

 large and open, the eyes small and dull; the muzzle 

 elongated, thick, projecting, pendulous, and flexible 

 — it is covered with hair. Two small pendulous 

 dewlaps of loose skin hang from the throat; the 

 neck is short and thick, the body strong and short ; 

 the limbs are long and awkward ; the toes are 

 broad, and divided so high that they diverge as the 

 animal presses them to the ground ; the tail is ex- 

 tremely short; the hair is full, harsh, long, and pro- 

 duced on the neck and shoulders into a mane. 



It has been considered by many naturalists, that 

 the American Elk and the European Elk are speci- 

 ficially identical ; it is probable, however, that they 

 are distinct. The European Elk is spread but thinly 

 through the wild forest-regions of Norway, Sweden, 

 part of Prussia, Lithuania, and Russia, from the 

 fifty-third to the sixty-third degree of latitude. It 

 extends also through Asiatic Tartary to the north 

 of China. Buffon supposes that the Greeks were 

 unacquainted with this animal, and it does not ap- 

 pear to have been noticed by Aristotle. That it was 

 the &\Kt), Alce or Alces, of Pausanias, Caesar, and 

 Pliny, there can be no doubt. The word Alce or 

 Alchis is merely the Celtic Elch or the Scandinavian 

 iElg modified. In book viii. ch. xvi. Pliny gives an 

 account of the Alce, which he distinguishes from the 

 Alchis, regarding them at the same time as allied 

 animals : but it is easy to see through his error ; his 

 account of it walking backwards while feeding, in 

 consequence of its overhanging lip, and his state- 

 ment ;that there is no joint at the hock, we need 

 scarcely say are fabulous. According to Mr, Lloyd 

 ('Field' Sports of the North of Europe') the elk is 

 far less common than formerly, and restricted only 

 to certain districts. It frequently attains the height 

 of seven and even eight feet, but does not attain to 

 full growth till about the fourteenth year. A young 

 elk two years old, in the possession of Mr. Wise, 

 the Swedish consul-general, measured upwards of 

 six feet at the shoulder. " By nature/' says Mr. 

 Lloyd, "the elk is timorous, and he usually flies at 

 the sight of man. At certain seasons, however, like 

 other animals of the deer kind, he is at times rather 

 dangerous. His weapons are his horns and hoofs ; 

 he strikes so forcible with the latter, as to annihilate 

 a wolf or other large animal at a single blow. It is 

 said that when the elk is incensed the hair on his 

 neck bristles up like the mane of a lion, which gives 

 him a wild and frightful appearance. The usual 

 pace of the elk is a high shambling trot, and his 

 strides are immense, but' I have known him, when 

 frightened, to go at a tremendous gallop. In pass- 

 ing through thick woods he carries his horns hori- 

 zontally, to prevent them from being entangled in 

 the branches; from the formation of his hoofs, he 

 makes great clattering, like the rein-deer when in 

 rapid motion. In the summer season the elk usually 

 resorts to morasses and low situations ; for, like other 

 animals of the deer kind, he frequently takes to the 

 water in warm weather; he is an admirable swim- 

 mer. In the winter time he retires to the more shel- 

 tered parts of the forest, where willow, ash, &c, are 

 to be found, as from the small boughs of these trees 

 he obtains his sustenance during that period of the 

 year. In the summer and autumn the elk is often 

 to be met with in smali herds, but in the winter 

 there are seldom more than two or three in company. 

 At the latter season, indeed, he is frequently alone. 

 The flesh of the elk, whether fresh or smoked, is very 

 excellent: the young are particularly delicious. 

 The tongue and the nose are thought to be great 

 delicacies in Scandinavia as well as in America. 

 Great virtue was once placed in the hoof of that 

 animal : but this idle notion must, by this time, I 

 should think, be nearly exploded. The skin is con- 

 vertible to many purposes, and is very valuable. 

 Mr. Grieff says—' It is not long since that a regi- 

 ment was clothed with waistcoats made from the 

 hides of those animals, which were so thick that a 

 ball could scarcely penetrate them.' The elk is 

 easily domesticated. Formerly these animals were 

 made use of in Sweden to draw sledges, but, owing, 

 as it was said, to their speed frequently accelerating 

 the escape of people who had been guilty of mur- 

 ders or other crimes, the use of them was prohibited 

 under great penalties. Though I apprehend these 

 ordinances, if not abrogated, are obsolete, I am not 

 aware that the elk is ever made use of in that king- 

 dom ai the present day, either to draw a sledge or 



