Chap. I.] 



DEER. 



57 



is spent on firm ground, has the bones of the foot so 

 constructed as to afford the most solid support to an 

 animal of its great weight ; but in the buffalo, which 

 delights in the morasses on the margins of pools and 

 rivers, the construction of the foot resembles that of the 

 reindeer. The tarsi in front extend almost horizontally 

 from the upright bones of the leg, and spread apart 

 widely on touching the ground ; the hoofs are flattened 

 and broad, with the extremities turned upwards ; and the 

 false hoofs behind descend till they make a clattering 

 sound as the animal walks. In traversing the marshes, 

 this combination of abnormal incidents serves to give 

 extraordinary breadth to the foot, and not only prevents 

 the buffalo from sinking inconveniently in soft ground *, 

 but at the same time presents no obstacle to the with- 

 drawal of its foot from the mud. 



The buffalo, like the elk, is sometimes found in 

 Ceylon as an albino, with purely white hair and a pink 

 iris. 



Deer. — " Deer," says the truthful old chronicler, 

 Eobert Knox, " are in great abundance in the woods, 

 from the largeness of a cow to the smallness of a hare, 

 for here is a creature in this land no bigger than the 

 latter, though every part rightly resembleth a deer : it 

 is called meminna, of a grey colour, with white spots 

 and good meat." 2 The little creature which thus dwelt 

 in the recollection of the old man, as one of the memo- 



1 Professor Owen has noticed a in the camel and dromedary, that 



similar fact regarding the rudi- traverse arid deserts. — Owen on 



ments of the second and fifth digits Limbs, p. 34 ; see also Bell on the 



in the instance of the elk and bison, Hand, ch. iii. 

 which have them largely expanded Knox's Relation, Sfc, book i 



where they inhabit swampy ground; c. 6. 

 whilst they are nearly obliterated 



