Quadrupeds, What They Are and Where Found: A Book of Zoology for BoysReid, Mayne
Science
Quadrupeds, What They Are and Where Found: A Book of Zoology for Boys
Reid, Mayne
Mammals
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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