. An introduction to the study of mammals living and extinct. Mammals. 326 UNGULATA for beneath the snow. The wild Eeindeer grows to a much greater size than the tame breed; but in Northern Europe the former are being gradually reduced through the natives entrapping and domesticating them. The tame breed found in Northern Asia is much larger than the Lapland form, and is there used to ride on. Eemains referable to the existing species are found in the cavern and other Pleistocene deposits of Europe. ^—The Elk or Moose {Alces marliJis) has the same general distribution as the Eeindeer, an
. An introduction to the study of mammals living and extinct. Mammals. 326 UNGULATA for beneath the snow. The wild Eeindeer grows to a much greater size than the tame breed; but in Northern Europe the former are being gradually reduced through the natives entrapping and domesticating them. The tame breed found in Northern Asia is much larger than the Lapland form, and is there used to ride on. Eemains referable to the existing species are found in the cavern and other Pleistocene deposits of Europe. ^—The Elk or Moose {Alces marliJis) has the same general distribution as the Eeindeer, and is like-. FiG. 132.—Hinder part of the base of the cranium of the Virginian Deer (Cariacus virginianus). From Garrod, Proc. zooi. soc. isrr, p. 13. IS wise the single existing representative of its genus. It is the largest existing member of the family, attaining some- times a height of S feet at the withers. The antlers (Fig. 133) have neither brow nor bez tine, but form an enormous basin-shaped palmation, primarily composed of an anterior and a posterior branch; their weight may be as much as 60 lbs. The nasal bones are very short, and the narial aperture of great size. The Elk is covered with a thick coarse fur of a brownish colour, longest on the neck and throat. Its legs are long and its neck short, and as it is thus unable to feed close to the ground, 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 snags, until fourteen of these are produced. Although spending a large part of their lives in forests, Elks do not suflPer much inconvenience from the great expanse of their antlers, as in making their way amono- "trees they are carried horizontally to prevent entanglement with the branches. Their usual pace is a shambling trot, but when frightened they break into a gallop. The natural timid
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