THE FALLOW DEER. (Cervus dama.)
These are the Deer now usually kept in our parks. The beautifully spotted kind are said to have been brought from Bengal, and the very deep brown from Norway by King James I. Their horns are broad and flat; the male is called a buck, the female a doe, and the young one a fawn. The buck casts his horns every spring, and they increase in size annually till he has attained his fifth year. The venison of this Deer is very far superior to that of the red deer, which is coarse and tough. The buck-skin and doe-skin are well known, as furnishing a peculiarly soft and warm leather, which is used for gloves, gaiters, &c. The horns are used for the handles of knives, &c., like those of the stag; and the refuse is, in the like manner, used in the manufacture of ammonia. The buck stands about three feet high, and measures about five feet in length; the doe is somewhat smaller. The tail is much longer than either that of the stag or the roebuck, being nearly seven inches and a half long.
THE ELK, (Cervus Alces,)
Is the largest of all the Deer kind. The antlers, at first simple, and then divided into narrow slips, assume in the fifth year the form of a triangular blade, dentated on the external edge and very thick at the base; they increase with age, till they weigh fifty or sixty pounds, and have fourteen branches to each horn. The Elk lives in forests, feeding upon branches and sprouts of trees, and inhabits Europe, Asia, and America; in the last-named country he is known by the name of the Moose Deer. There is very little difference between the European Elk and the American Moose Deer, though they are larger in the New World than with us, owing perhaps to the extensive forests in which they range. In all places, however, they are timorous and gentle; content with their pasture, and never willing to disturb any other animal. The pace of the Elk is a high, shambling trot, but it runs with great swiftness. Formerly these animals were made use of in Sweden to draw sledges, but their swiftness gave criminals such means of escape, that this employment of them was prohibited under great penalties. The female is less than the male, and has no horns.