54 



Elk 



till in old mules it becomes more or less grizzly. In regard to this senile 

 hiding, Mr. Caton writes as follows: "That this is much more the case 

 with some than with others, we may not question, any more than that 

 individuals of" all ages differ very appreciably in colour, which is admitted 

 by all. It is by far the darkest coloured of all our deer, and it is probably 

 the darkest of any known deer of any part of the world. It has always 

 been recognised as much darker than the Swedish elk, with which, I am 

 entirely satisfied by critical examination, it is specifically identical." Not 

 only does this last conclusion appear well founded, but it seems impossible 

 to regard the Old World and New World elks as even representing dis- 

 tinct sub-species, although many zoologists refuse to believe that one form 

 can be common to two separate continents. In weight an elk will scale 

 from 900 to 1400 pounds, and the antlers may weigh as much as 60 pounds. 



At the present day, European antlers never attain dimensions equal to 

 those ot the largest American examples, but it is possible that this may be 

 due to the greatly diminished numbers of the former. As in the case of 

 the reindeer, the locality of many of the elk antlers in the British 

 Museum is unknown. The following are the seven largest specimens 

 recorded by Mr. Rowland Ward, all being American : — 



Length to Longest Point ;iml Circumference Tip to Tip Greatest Breadth of 



on Inside Curve. above Burr. Span. Width. Palmation. 



44 ? ? 61 J ? 



43i H 40 594. Hi 



42f 10 35! 56 i3i 



? ? ? 67 ? 



41 8£ ? ? 2 if 



41 ? ? 54i ? 



41 ? ? 65 24 



With regard to nomenclature, it is quite certain that, according to the 

 strict rules of priority, Alces machlis is not the proper title for the elk. 

 But the difficulty of arriving at a satisfactory conclusion as to what this 

 should be is so great, that it seems preferable to allow the name commonly 

 in use to remain. It is true this name is antedated by Alces americanus ; 

 but many naturalists would replace this by Alces alces, or Alee alces — 

 combinations which do not meet with approval on my own part, and prob- 

 ably on that of many of my readers. Moreover, as mentioned above, 



