NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
389 
to command admiration, and indeed awe, on being first seen. 
¥rom such combined feelings many a hand has been stayed from 
drawing the trigger, and many an elk has quickly disappeared 
scatheless amongst the dense fir thickets through which it can 
worm its bulky form and spreading antlers with such wonder- 
ful facility. The American bull moose in its prime, in the early 
days of autumn, with its glossy jet-black coat, golden brown legs, 
and fawn coloured flanks, its great palmated liorns all cleaned 
from their recent skin covering, and polished by repeated rubbing 
against young tree stems, is as different an animal as could be 
imagined from the lank dispirited figure of the moose in wintei', 
at the conclusion of the rutting season, and when it is shorn oi 
its head ornaments which are dropped at Christmas. 
The concluding question of Mr. White, as to whether Mr. 
Pennant thought still that the European elk and the American 
moose are the same creature, may, I consider, be answered in 
confirmation of the latter gentleman's opinion. I have carefully 
examined, and taken both drawings and measurements of well 
grown animals of this species bred in both hemispheres, and 
am convinced of their identity — an opinion shared by the best 
German sporting authorities, and by a w^ell known English 
sportsman,^ and correspondent of Land and Water, who has 
studied the question during a residence of some years in the 
British North American Provinces, and in Germany, in a par- 
ticular forest of which country the elk is still found and strictly 
preserved. 
I have found more variation of the woodland reindeer of 
America in its distribution across the continent, than I am able 
to perceive as existing between the elks of the Old and J^ew 
Worlds in the unimportant differences of size and shade of 
colour of the hair. — C. HAiiDY, Lieut-Colonel, Royal Artillery. 
In Ijand and Water, No. 134, vol. vi., Aug.' 15, 1868, will 
be found an engraving, and a description by Colonel Hardy, of a 
pair of European Elks, presented to bis Royal Highness the 
Prince of Wales, by Mr. Oscar Dickson, of Gothenburg. They 
were kept some time at Sandringham. 
Common Wren, p. 101. — " The common wren [Troglodytes 
E'uroiJceus) writes Mr. Napier, " is prolific, but I never saw a 
well-authenticated instance of its laying more than ten eggs at a 
sitting. The wren builds a very firm, compact, and comfortable 
nest, which is made of a great variety of materials. I will 
describe six in my collection. The first is built of moss and 
B. W. (Berlin). 
