Quadrupeds, What They Are and Where Found: A Book of Zoology for Boys

by Mayne Reid

The habits of the elk of Northern Europe appear to be identical with the moose of America. Hunting it in Sweden and Norway is a favourite sport, and its flesh is eaten, the nose and tongue being esteemed great delicacies, as they are in America. It is related that elks were formerly used in Sweden to draw the sledge; but, for certain reasons, this was prohibited by law.

In point of size, the Wapiti stands next to the elk. In shape he resembles the well-known Stag or Red Deer of our parks, but is much larger. The wapiti is exclusively a native of North America; and it may be remarked that his range is more southerly, and not so northerly as that of the moose. He is not found so far south as the Southern States, nor farther north than the Canadas; but around the great lakes, and westward to the Rocky Mountains, and even to the Pacific, the wapiti is met with. He is a noble creature—perhaps the noblest of the deer tribe—and it is a boast of the backwoods’ hunter to have killed an elk; for such, as already mentioned, is the name erroneously given to this animal.

Perhaps the Reindeer is the most celebrated of all the deer; and just on that account I shall say but little of this species, since its habits are familiar to every one. Every one has read of the Laplander and his reindeer—how these people have tamed and trained, and otherwise submitted it to a variety of useful purposes; but the Laplanders are not the only people who have to do with the reindeer. The tribes of the Tungusians and Tchutski, who inhabit the northern parts of Asia, have also trained it to various uses—as a beast of burden, and also to ride upon. The variety—perhaps it is a distinct species—which the Tungusians employ for the saddle, is much larger than that of the Laplanders; but it may be remarked that there are also varieties in Lapland itself. The same remark applies to the reindeer of America, which is found in the northern parts of the Hudson’s Bay territory, and all along the shores of the Arctic Ocean, making its way over frozen seas, even to the islands that lie around the pole. In these desolate countries the Caribou (for by such name is the reindeer known in America) is hunted by both Indians and Esquimaux; but it has never been trained by either race to any useful purpose, and is only sought for as furnishing an important article of food and clothing. At least two kinds of Caribou exist in the vast tracts of almost unknown country known as Prince Rupert’s Land, or the Hudson’s Bay territory.

As the three kinds described belong—at least partially—to the New World, we shall finish with the other deer of this hemisphere, before proceeding to those peculiar to the Old World.

The Virginian Deer is the species common to the United States proper, and, in fact, the only wild species now found in the greater number in the States. It is a small animal, very similar to the fallow-deer of Europe; and several varieties (or species), not differing much from the Virginian deer, exist throughout the forests of Mexico, California, Oregon, and South America. In Mexico there are three or four species, severally known as the Mexican Deer, the Mazama, the Cariacou, and by other appellations. Of course, the inhabitants simply know them as venados (deer). In Guyana there are one or two small species, and along the forest-covered sides of the Andes two or three more. In Bolivia there is a large kind known as the Tarush; and on the pampas of Buenos Ayres and Patagonia is a kind called Guazuti, which associates in large herds, and is remarkable for the powerful odour emitted by the bucks.

In the forests of the Amazon, and all through the Brazilian country, deer exist of different species; several, as the Guazuviva, the Pita, the Eyebrowed Brocket, and the Large-eared Brocket, being tiny little creatures, not much larger than the fawns of the ordinary species.

Returning to North America, we find several varieties of the Virginian Deer in the countries lying along the Pacific coast—viz., California, Oregon, and Russian America. These have received trivial names, though it is believed that they are only varieties, as mentioned above. Two, however, appear to be specifically different from the Virginian deer. One of these is the Mule Deer of the Rocky Mountains—almost as large as the red deer of our own country, and well-known to the trappers of the Upper Missouri. Another is a well-marked species, on account of the length of its tail—whence it has received its hunter appellation of the Long-tailed Deer.

The Deer of Europe are not numerous in species; but if we consider the large herds shut up in parks, they are perhaps as plentiful in numbers as elsewhere, over a like extent of territory.

The Reindeer and Elk, as already stated, are both indigenous to Europe; so also the Stag or Red Deer, the greatest ornament of our parks. The red deer runs wild in Scotland, and in most of the great forests of Europe and Asia. There are also varieties of this noble animal, a small one being found in the mountains of Corsica.

The Fallow-Deer is too well-known to need description. It is enough to say that it exists wild in most countries of Europe, our own excepted. Into this country it is supposed to have been introduced from Denmark.