Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/34

Rh ing this time the males go in search of the females, and are exceedingly fierce and dangerous. The period of gestation extends a few days beyond eight months, and the hind usually produces a singb calf. The stag is remarkably shy and wary, and its sense of smell is exceedingly acute. In former times it was hunted with horse, hound, and horn, and such is still the practice in Devonshire and in Ireland, but in Scotland the old method has been superseded by &quot; stalking.&quot; A full grown stag stands about 4 feet high at the shoulders ; its fur in summer is of a reddish-brown colour with a yellowish-white patch on the buttocks, in winter the fur is much thicker and of a grayish brown. The Wapiti Deer (Cervus canadensis) may be regarded as the representative of the stag in North America. It stands, however, a foot higher, and bears correspondingly heavier antlers. It occurs chiefly in Canada, where it feeds on grass and the young shoots of the willow and poplar. It has gained the reputation of being the most stupid of the cervine family, but this may have partly arisen from the peculiar noise it makes, corresponding to the &quot; belling &quot; of the stag, but in its case resembling very much the braying of an ass. Its flesh is coarse, and is held in little estimation by the Indians, owing to the excessive hardness of the fat. It thrives well in Britain, and would probably have been introduced had its venison been better. The Fallow Deer (Dama vulgaris), a species semi- domesticated in Britain, where it forms a principal ornament in parks, still occurs wild in Western Asia, North Africa, and (Sardinia, and in prehistoric times appears to have abounded throughout Northern and Central Europe. It stands 3 feet high at the shoulders, and its antlers, which are cylindrical at the base, become palmated towards the extremity, the palmation showing itself in the third year, and the antlers reaching their full growth in the sixth. The fur is of a yellowish-brown colour (whence the name &quot; fallow &quot;), marked with white spots ; there is, how ever, a uniformly brown variety found in Britain, and said to have been brought by James 1. from Norway on account of its hardiness. The two varieties are said by Darwin to have been long kept together in the Forest of Dean, but have never been known to mingle. The bucks and does live apart except during the pairing season, and the doe produces one or two, and sometimes three fawns at a birth. They are exceedingly fond of music, and a herd of twenty bucks were, it is said, brought from Yorkshire to Hampton Court, led by music from a bagpipe and violin. They feed on herbage, and are particularly fond of horse chestnuts, which the males endeavour to procure by striking at the branches with their antlers. The Roe Deer (Gapreolus capra) is the smallest of the British Cervidce, a full-grown buck standing not more than 26 inches high at the shoulders. The antlers are short, upright, and deeply furrowed, and differ from those of the preceding species in the absence of a basal &quot; tine.&quot; The horns, in this, as well as in the other members of the deer family, are largely employed in the manufacture of handles for cutlery, and the parings from these were formerly used in the preparation of ammonia, hence the name hartshorn still applied to that substance. The Roe Deer inhabits southern and temperate Europe as far east as Syria, where it frequents woods, preferring such as have a large growth of underwood, and are in the neighbourhood of culti vated ground. This it visits in the evening in search of food ; and where roes are numerous, the damage done to growing crops is considerable. In going to and from their feeding grounds they invariably follow the same track, and the sportsman takes advantage of this habit to waylay them. In hunting the roe the woods are driven by beaters, and they are shot down, as they speed along the accustomed paths, by the ambushed hunter. The species was until recently supposed to be monogamous, pairing in December, and the period of gestation only extending over five months. This supposition arose from the fact that the foetus in the doe was never found till January, and that then it was but slightly developed, although the sexes were known to seek the society of each other in July and August. From the investigations of Professor Bischoff of Giessen it appears that the true rutting season of the Roe Deer is in July and August ; but that the ovum lies dormant until December, when it begins to develop in the normal way; the period of gestation is thus extended to nearly nine months. It was formerly abundant in all the wooded parts of Great Britain, but was gradually driven out, until in Pennant s time it did not occur south of Perthshire. Since then the increase of plantations has led to its partial restoration in the south of Scotland and north of England. It takes readily to the water, and has been known to swim across lochs more than half a mile in breadth. The Elk or Moose Deer (Alces malchis) is the largest of living Cervidce, its shoulders being higher than those of the horse. Its head measures 2 feet in length, and its antlers, which are broadly palmated, often weigh from 50 to GO Ib ; the neck is consequently short and stout. It is covered with a thick coarse fur of a brownish colour, longest on the neck and throat. Its legs are long, and it is thus unable to feed close to the ground for which reason it browses on the tops of low plants, the leaves of trees, and the tender shoots of the willow and birch. Its antlers attain their full length by the fifth year, but in after years they increase in breadth and in the number of branches, until fourteen of these are produced. Although spending a large part of their lives in forests they do not appear to suffer much in convenience from the great expanse of their antlers. In making their way among trees, the horns are carried horizontally to prevent entanglement with the branches, and so skilful is the elk that &quot; he will not break or touch a dead twig when walking quietly.&quot; His usual pace, according to Lloyd (Field Sporty), is a shambling trot ; but when frightened he goes at a tremendous gallop. The elk is a shy and timorous creature, fleeing at the sight of man This timidity, however, forsakes the male at the rutting season, and he will then attack whatever animal comes in his way. The antlers and hoofs are his principal weapons, and with a single blow from the latter he has been known to kill a wolf. In North America the moose is tormented in the hot season by mosquitoes, and it is when rendered furious by the attacks of those insects that it can be most readily approached. The female seldom gives birth to more than two fawns, and with these she retires into the deepest recesses of the forest, the young remaining with her till their third year. The elk ranges over the whole of Northern Europe and Asia, as far south as East Prussia, the Caucasus, and North China, and over North America from the New England States westward to British Columbia. It was formerly common in the forests of Germany and France, and is still found in some parts of Sweden and Norway, where it is strictly protected. The elk, according to Lloyd, is easily domesticated, and waa at one time employed in Sweden in drawing sledges. During winter it is frequently seen alone, but in summer and autumn it may be met with in small herds. In summer also it frequents morasses and low grounds, and takes readily to the water ; in winter it retires to the shelter of the forests, where alone it can find suitable sustenance. Its flesh is considered excellent, and its tongue and nose are regarded as delicacies. The Reindeer (Tarandus rangifer), the only domesticated species of deer, has a range somewhat similar to the elk, extending over the entire boreal region of both hemispheres, from Greenland and Spitzbergen in the north to New

