Of hares, our common (so called) wild-rabbit, is a species. 

 Strictly speaking, as at present classified, we have not, nor have 

 we ever had, any wild rabbits in Connecticut. We have rabbits, 

 but only domesticated ones from Europe. In addition we have, 

 or have had, the northern hare {Lepus Amerieanus), which is some- 

 times called the wild white-rabbit. I suppose it is in Connecticut 

 still. The animal which we commonly call "wild-rabbit," or 

 " gray-rabbit " is Lepus sylvati'eus, or wood-hare. 



Having- disposed briefly of the insectivora, the carnivora, and 

 the rodentia, we have come to the last of the great orders of 

 quadrupedal mammals, to wit, the ruminantia, or animals that 

 "chew their cud," and are ungulate, or hoofed. And here we 

 have but a single family to deal with, that of the Cervidae, or 

 stags. 



Here we begin with the largest and most ungainly species 

 and genus ; that of the animal bearing the old-world name of elk, 

 or, more commonly, the new-world name of moose. The latter is 

 from the Algonkin word musii, meaning wood-eater. In Wood's 

 New England Prospect he says : " There be not many of these in 

 Massachusetts Bay, but forty miles to the northeast of Boston 

 there be a great store of them." This was in 1634. In Morton's 

 New English Canaan (published in 1637) he is somewhat explicit in 

 describing the moose. He says : '' I will speake of the Elke, which 

 the Salvages call a Mose ; it is a very large Deare, with a very 

 faire head and a broade palm," . . . "6 foote wide between 

 the tips." ..." He is of the bigness of a great horse." This 

 was in the vicinity of Plymouth. Being so near to Connecticut, it 

 is fair to assume that they sometimes were in our limits, for Ply- 

 mouth is as far south as northern Connecticut. But to-day the 

 moose is not found in New England south of Maine. He is the 

 sole representative of the genus Alee. 



The herd which Gen. Waitstill Winthrop kept on Fisher's 

 Island (then in Connecticut, where it ought to be now) was 

 brought from New York, probably from west of the Hudson river. 

 Winthrop was then owner of Fisher's Island (in 17 13) and he 

 intended to present this herd of moose to Queen Anne. But the 

 animals were destroyed, mostly by marauders, before Winthrop 

 could ship them. 



One species of the genus Tarandus we probably had, the wood- 

 land reindeer. Its favorite food, reindeer-moss, abounds on our 

 elevated ridges. 



Of the genus Rangifer we had one species called caribou and 

 elk, which still survives in Maine, and was until lately in the 

 Adirondack wilds. The word caribou is Canadian French. The 

 wapiti, an animal much resembling the reindeer, may have been 



