C. tarandus, or the rein deer. When full grown, this is about the height of four feet six inches, and both sexes are furnished with horns, those of the male, however, being much larger than the females. It is found more abundantly than any where else in Lapland and Nor way. It is met with in the north of Asia so far as Kamschatka, and in America so. far south as Canada. NVith the Laplander the rein deer is a complete substitute for the horse, the cow, the sheep, and the goat. He possesses two breeds of this animal, the wild and the tame. The for mer of these are by far the most vigor ous, but are also often extremely obsti nate and not a little ferocious, upon their drivers with dangerous, and sometimes fatal, fury. The tame rein deer, therefore, is almost universally pre ferred. It is trained when young to draw the sledge, which is the common vehicle of the country, which is made extremely light, and covered with the skin of a young deer. The deer is fastened to this car riage by a strap, which passes round his neck, and comes down between his legs, and is guided by a cord, tied round his horns, and held by the driver, whose cheering voice is perpetually exerted to encourage the animal on his progress, and who is furnished also with a goad for occasional applications. One of these deer has been known several times to draw its sledge and owner a journey of fifty miles without stopping ; an, exertion, however, which is almost uniformly fatal to it. To a progress of thirty miles with out halting it is a competent, without any injury. The constant mode of travelling in Lapland in winter is by means of the deer and sledge. It is extremely speedy, yet at the same time inconvenient and dan gerous, and can be accomplished only when the snow is frozen and glazed. The favourite food of this animal is a species of moss, which, in Lapland, covers the face of the country through large tracts, and to obtain which, in winter, the horns of the rein deer enable it to dig through the snow with great facility. The atten tion paid by the Laplander to these ani mals constitutes his principal occupation. In the rigour of winters they are shelter ed and nursed by him ; in the short sum mers they are led to the banks of the lakes and rivers, or to the tops of the mountains, where they may brouse on their favourite lichen ; which, from the fulness and sweetness of the pasture, sup plies all the richness and variety of his temperate banquets, fig. 2 C. elaphus, or the stag. This animal is found in nearly all the temperate climates of Europe and Asia. It is also found in North America, but attains its largest size, in Siberia. From the branchiness of its horns, the elegance of its form and movements, and the strength of its limbs, it deservedly attracts particular admira tion, and may be regarded as a principle embellishment of the forest. The stag is remarkable for a fine eye and an acute sense of smelling. Its ear, also, is ex quisitely sensible, and musical sounds ap pear to possess over him the power of exciting complacency, if not rapture. His enemies not unfrequently employ the shepherd's pipe to decoy him to his de struction ; and Mr. Playfbrd, in his " In troduction to Music," states, that he once met a herd of twenty stags near Royston, which readily followed the tones of a violin and bagpipe, played by their con ductors, but stopped whenever the music was suspended. Their whole progress from Yorkshire to Hampton-court was attended, and it was supposed extremely facilitated, by these sounds. The Aug is simple and unsuspicious, and employs no arts to avoid detection or pursuit, until af ,:er having received considerable molesta ion. His food consists, in winter, of most and bark ; in spring, of tite kips of willow and hazel, and the flowerg and buds of camel; in summer, of the grain of rye and the tender shoots of the alder ; in autumn, of the leaves of bram bles, and the flowers of heath and broom. Ile eats with slowness, and ruminates with some considerable effort,. in conse quence of the distance between the first stomach and the mouth. In March, ge nerally, he sheds his horns, which are not completely renewed till August. It will live to between thirty and forty years of age, and was, formerly, amidst the other vulgar errors of antiquity, supposed capa ble of attaining most extraordinary dura tion. The stag is supposed to have been
introduced from France into England where it has latterly been made to give way to the fallow deer, an animal more gentle in its manners, and more valuable as food. In some parts of Scotland the stag is yet to be found in its original wild state.
C. dams, or the fallow deer. This ani mal is, in general, much smaller than the stag ; but in Spain is nearly equally large : in France and Germany, it is rare ly to be found, and it has never been known to have existed in America : it has the elegance of the stag, connected with a much more tractable disposition : it sheds its horns, which, as in the stag spe cies, are peculiar to the male, every year ; is stated to live to the age of twenty years, and arrives at its maturity in three : it is by no means fastidious in its food. Fig. 4.
C. capreolus, or the roe. This is the smallest of the animals of this class in Europe, and generally of a reddish-brown colour : it is graceful, sprightly, and.cou rageous, particularly cleanly, and de lighting in dry and mountainous situa tions : it leaves a strong scent behind it, but possesses such arts of defence, that, by various doublings, and intermixtures of past with present emanations from its body, it frequently baffles the most ex perienced dogs, and remains in a state of security while the full pack passes almost close by its retreat, distinguishing it nei ther by sight nor smell: it differs from the stag in the constancy of its attach ments, and the parents and their young constitute a family, never associating with strangers : two fawns are generally pro duced by the female at a birth, one of each sex, which, living together, form a mutual and invincible attachment. When a new family is to be nursed, the former • is driven off to provide for itself, but re turns again after a certain interval to the mother, whose former affection is restor ed : a final, separation speedily takes place, however, soon after this return, between the fawns of the season preced ing the last and their dam, and the for mer remove to a distance, constituting a distinct establishment, and rearing an off spring of their own. When the female is about to bring forth, she secludes her self in some remote recess of the fo rest, from which she returns at the end of about ten days, with her fawns, just able slowly and weakly to follow her steps : in cases of danger, she hides them in a place deemed by her most secure from the enemy, and attracts the attention of the latter from them to herself; happy, by her own perils, or even destruction, to eflect the security of her offspring. In winter these animals feed on brambles, broom, heath, and catkins ; and in spring they eat the young wood and leaves of almost every species of trees, and are said to be so affected, as it were with in toxication, by the fermentation of this food in their stomachs, that they will ap proach men and other enemies, whom they generally shun with extreme care, without apprehension or suspicion. The flesh of these animals is excellent, though after two years of age that of the males is ill-flavoured and tough. Some roes have been found perfectly white, and in the forest of Lucia, in the duchy of Lunen burgh, a race of jet black roes is to be met with, in every other respect but this marked peculiarity of colour, (which is also stated to be an invariable distinc tion,) resembling the common roe.
Roes may be tamed to a certain degree, but never so as to be completely familiar ized, The share of nal oral wildness which they ever retain is connected, especially in males, with much caprice, and even antipathy to particular individuals, whom they will assault with their horns, and af terwards violently trample on with their feet. The roe exists now in no part of Ireland, and, in Great Britain, only in a few districts of the Highlands.
C. axis, or spotted axis, is a most beau tiful animal, marked with numerous spots : it is described by Pliny, and is said to have been sacred to Bacchus among the anci ents. Fig. 3.