RUMINANTIA-CERVINAE-ALCE AMERICANUS. 
631 
ALCE, Ham. Smith. 
Alee , Ham. Smith, Griffith’s Cuv. V, 1827, 303. 
Alces , Guay, Knowsley Menagerie, 1850, 56. 
Muzzle very broad, produced, covered with hair, except a small moist naked spot in front of the nostrils. Neck short 
and thick ; hair thick and brittle ; throat rather maned in both sexes ; hind legs have the tuft of hair rather above the 
middle of the metatarsus ; the males have palmate horns. The nose cavity in the skull is very large, reaching behind to 
a line over the front of the grinders ; the intermaxillaries are very long, but do not reach to the nasal. The nasals are 
very short. 
In the preceding carefully prepared diagnosis, borrowed from Dr. Cray’s elaborate article on 
tbe Euminantia in “Knowsley’s Menagerie,” are embodied tbe chief peculiarities of the 
European elk and American moose. 
ALCE AMERICANUS, Jar dine. 
Moose. 
Cerms alces, Harlan, F. Am. 1825, 229. (Description from European animal ?) 
Godman, Am. N. H. H, 279. 
Richardson, F. B. A. I, 1829, 232. 
Dekay, N. T. Zool. I, 1842, 15 ; plate xxix, fig. 2. 
Aud. & Bach. N. Am. Quad. H, 1851, 179 ; plate lxxvi. 
Alces americanus, “Jardine, Nat. Library, IH, 1835, 125.” 1 
Baird, Rep. U. S. Pat. Office, Agricultural for 1851, (1852,) 112. 
Alces machlis, Ogilby, Pr. Zool. Soc. Lond. IV, 1836, 135. 
Alces malchis, Gray, Pr. Zool. Soc. Lond. XVIII, 1850, 224, (in part.)— Ib. Knowsley Menagerie, 1850, 67, (in 
part.) 
Cerms orignal (Dierville,) Reichenbach, Vollst. Naturg. Saugt. Ill, Wiederkauer, 1845, 10 ; plate i, figs. 4, 5, 6. 
Cervus lobatus, Agassiz, Pr. Bost. Soc. N. H. II, Dec. 1846, 188. 
Alces muswa, Richardson, Zoology of Herald, Fossil Mammals, n, 1852, 101; plate xx, xxii, xxiv. (Detailed 
account of osteology.) 
L’Orignal, Cuvier & St. Hilaire, Hist, des Mammif. IV, 119 ; plate. 
In the generic diagnosis I have given tbe chief characteristics of the American elk, as distin¬ 
guished from the other American deer. It is not in my power to give any full description of 
the species, as the collections of the Smithsonian Institution embrace nothing but horns. This 
is of the less importance, however, as the description of external form and of habit by Audubon 
and Bachman leaves hut little to be desired. 
Authors disagree very much as to whether the moose of America is different or not from the 
Swedish elk. The prevailing opinion is, however, in favor of their identity. 
Sir John Richardson, in the article on Fossil Mammals in Zoology of the Herald, calls our 
species Alces muswa. He gives a very elaborate account of the osteology of the species, and is 
quite inclined to believe, from actual comparison of skeletons, that the American and European 
species are distinct. Among other facts, he mentions that the breadth of the face at the most 
protuberant part of the maxillaries is less in the American than in the European animal. 
As far as I can ascertain, a distinct and specific name was first applied to the moose by Sir 
Wm, Jardine, in 1835, in the name of americanus. I have not the work quoted above at hand, 
hut boriow the reference from Reichenbach. 
I make this quotation from Reichenbach, not having the volume of Nat. Lib. at hand. 
