CERVUS. 
extremely obstiuate, and not a little fero- 
cious, turning upon their driver's with dan- 
gerous, and sometimes fatal, fury. The 
tame rein, deer, therefore, is almost univer- 
sally preferred. It is trained when young 
to draw the sledge, which is tire common 
vehicle of the country, which is made ex- 
tremely light, and covered with the skin of 
a young deer. The deer is fastened to this 
carriage by a strap, which passes round his 
neck, and comes down between his legs, and 
is guided by a cord, tied round his horns, 
and held by the driver, whose cheering 
voice is perpetually exerted to encourage 
the animal on his progress, and who is fur- 
nished also with a goad for occasional appli- 
cations. One of these deer has been known 
several times to draw its sledge and owner a 
journey of 50 miles, without stopping ; an 
exertion, however, which is almost uni- 
formly fatal to it. To a progress of thirty 
miles without halting it is competent, with- 
out any injury. The constant mode of 
travelling in Lapland in winter is by means 
of the deer at)d sledge. It is extremely 
speedy, yet at the same time inconvenient 
and dangerous, and can be accomplished 
only when the snow is frozen and glazed. 
The favourite food of this animal is a species 
of moss, which, in Lapland, covers the face 
of the country through large tracts, and to 
obtain which, in winter, the horns of the 
rein deer enable it to dig through the snow 
with great facility. The attention paid by 
the Laplander to these animals constitutes 
his principal occupation. In the rigour of 
winters they are sheltered and nursgd by 
him ; in the short summers they are led to the 
banks of the lakes and rivers, or to the tops 
of the mountains, where they may brouse 
on their favourite lichen ; which from the 
fullness and sweetness of the pasture, sup- 
plies al Ithe richness and variety of his tem- 
perate banquets, fig. 2. 
C. elaphus, or the stag. This animal is 
found in nearly all the temperate climates 
of Europe and Asia. It is also found in 
North America, but attains its largest size 
in Siberia. From the branchiness of its 
horns, the elegance of its form and move- 
ments, and the strength of its limbs, it de- 
servedly atti’acts particular admiration, and 
may be regarded as a principal embellish- 
ment of the forest. The stag is remarkable 
for a fine eye and an acute sense of smell- 
ing. Its ear, also, is exquisitely sensible, and 
musical sounds appear to possess over him 
tlie power of exciting complacency, if not 
rapture. His enemies not unfrequently 
employ the shepherd’s pipe to decoy him 
to his destruction ; and Mr. Playford, in 
his “ Introduction to Music,” states, that he 
once met a herd of twenty stags near Roy- 
ston, which readily followed the tones of a 
violin and bagpipe, played by their conduc- 
tors, but stopped whenever the music was 
suspended. Their whole progress from 
Yorkshire to Hampton-court was attended, 
and it was supposed extremely facilitated, 
by these sounds. The stag is simple and 
unsuspicious, and employs no art,^ to avoid 
detection or pursuit, until after having re- 
ceived considerable molestation. His food 
consists, in winter, of moss and bark ; in 
spring of the catkins of willow and hazel, 
and the flowers and buds of cornel ; in sum- 
mer, of the grain of rye and the tender 
shoots of the alder; in autumn, of the 
leaves of brambles, and the flowers of 
heath and broom. He eats with slowness, 
and ruminates with some considerable ef- 
fort, in consequence of the distance be- 
tween the first stomach and the mouth. In 
March, generally, he sheds his horns, which 
are not completely renewed till August. It 
will live to between tliirty and forty years 
of age, and was, formerly, amidst the 
other vulgar errors of antiquity, supposed 
capable of attaining most extraordinary du- 
ration. The stag is supposed to have been 
introduced from France into England, 
where it has latterly been made to give way 
to the fallow deer, an animal more gentle 
in its manners, and more valuable as food. 
In some parts of Scotland the stag is yet to 
be found in its original wild state. 
C. dama, or the fallow deer. This ani- 
mal is, in general, much snraller than the 
stag ; but in Spain is nearly equally large : 
in France and Germany, it is rarely to be 
found, and it has never been known to 
have existed in America: it has the ele- 
gance of the stag, connected with a much 
more tractable disposition : it sheds its 
horns, which, as in the stag species, are pe- 
culiar to the male, every year ; is stated to 
live to the age twenty years, and arrives at 
its maturity in three : it is by no means fas- 
tidious in its food. Fig. 4. 
C. capreolus, or the roe. This is the 
smallest of the animals of this class in Eu- 
rope, and generally of a reddish-brown co- 
lour: it is graceful, sprightly, and cou- 
rageous, particularly cleanly, and delighting 
in dry and mountainous situations : it leaves 
a strong scent behind it, but possesses such 
arts of defence, that by various doublings, 
and intermixtures of past with present ema- 
