Audubon's Mammals/MAMMALS1_3.BIN/dp/0011/00114.txt

Text File | 1992-08-25 | 31KB | 484 lines

$Unique_ID{QAD00114}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{American Elk; Wapite Deer     (Elk)}
$Subject{American Elk; Wapite Deer     (Elk); Elaphus; Canadensis; audio}
$Journal{Quadrupeds of America:  Volume II}
$Volume{Vol. 2:83-94}
$Genus{Elaphus}
$Species{Canadensis}
$Common_Name{American Elk; Wapite Deer}
$Log{
Plate LXII*00114P1.scf,51550024.aud
Audio*51550024.aud
Genus*00113.txt}

               (C) (P) Library of Natural Sounds 1990-91, 1992,
                              All rights reserved.
       Portions copyright (c) Creative Multimedia Corp., 1990-91, 1992

                       A U D U B O N ' S   M A M M A L S

                    By John James Audubon, F. R. S., &c. &c.

                                      AND

                     The Rev. John Bachman, D. D., &c. &c.

                  -------------------------------------------
                                   VOL.  II.
                        --------------------------------


                           ELAPHUS CANADENSIS.--Ray.
                                [Cervus elaphus]

                          AMERICAN ELK.--WAPITE DEER.
                                     [Elk]

                         PLATE LXII.--MALE AND FEMALE.


     E. Cervus Virginianus robustior cornibus amplissimis ramosis teretibus,
frontalibus amplis; cauda brevissimi.  Color rufescens, hieme fusceseens,
uropygio flavicante stria nigra circumscripto.


                                  CHARACTERS.

     Larger than the Virginian Deer.  Horns, large, not palmated, with brow
antlers; a naked space round the lachrymal opening.  Tail, short.  Colour,
yellowish brown above, a black mark extending from the angle of the mouth along
the sides of the lower jaw.  A broad pale yellowish spot on the buttocks.


                                   SYNONYMES.

     STAG, Pennant, Arctic Zool., vol. i., p. 27.
     WEWASKISS, Hearne, Journal, p. 360.
     RED DEER, Umfreville.
     RED DEER, Ray, Synops. Quad., p. 84.
     C. STRONGYLOCEROS, Schreber, Saugethiere, vol. ii., p. 1074, pl. 247,
       F. q. G.
     ALCES AMERICANUS, Jefferson's Notes on Virginia, p. 77.
     THE ELK, Lewis and Clark, vol. ii., p. 167.
     C. WAPTITE, Barton, Med. and Phys. Journal, vol. i., p. 36.
     ELK, Smith, Med. Reports, vol. ii., p. 157, fig. Male, Female, and Young.
     CERVUS (ELAPHUS) CANADENSIS, (The Wapite,) Synopsis of the Species of
       Mammalia.  Griffith's Cuvier, p. 776.
     C. CANADENSIS, Harlan, p. 236.
     C. CANADENSIS, Godman, vol. ii., p. 294, fig. Male.
     CERVUS STRONGYLOCEROS, Richardson, (The Wapite,) p. 251.
     ELAPHUS CANADENSIS, Dekay, New-York Fauna, p. 118, plate 28, fig. 2


                                  DESCRIPTION

     The Elk is of an elegant, stately and majestic form, and the whole animal
is in admirable proportion.  It bears so strong a resemblance to the red deer of
Europe, that it was for a long time regarded as a mere variety of the same
species.  It is, however, much larger in size, and on closer examination differs
from it in many particulars.
     Head, of moderate size; muzzle, broad and long, rather small, not very
prominent; ears, large; legs, rather stout, finely proportioned; hoofs, rather
small.
     From between the horns to the end of the frontal bone, beyond the nasal
opening sixteen inches, length of horns following the curvature of the main
branch four feet; with all the roots three and a quarter inches, by two and a
quarter thick.  There are six points on each horn, irregularly disposed; varying
in length from nine to sixteen inches, excepting one which is two and a half
inches only in length.  At their points the horns curve backward and upward, and
are about three feet five inches apart, at about half the distance from their
roots to the extreme tip of the longest point or main branch.  The horns at the
insertion are three and three-quarter inches apart from the ring or crown at
their roots.
     In examining a number of elk horns we find a very remarkable variety no two
antlers being exactly alike on the same animal.  We possess one pair which has a
blunt prong extending downward on the right side of the face about nine inches,
whilst the corresponding prong on the opposite side is turned upwards.  The
horns of this individual have five prongs on one horn and seven on the other.
The horns are longitudinally channelled, most of the prongs inclining forward
and upward, especially those nearest the roots of the main horn.  All the horns
are large and round, with brow antlers.  The weight of the horns on full grown
animals, as we have ascertained by weighing about a dozen of large size, is from
thirty to forty five pounds.
     The three hindermost teeth in the upper jaw are double; the remainder
single.  There are in the upper jaw of the male two very small canine teeth
inclining forward almost on a line with the jaw.  There is a short rudimentary
mane on the fore-shoulder, and under the throat during the winter there are long
black hairs.
     There is a space on the outer side of the hind legs covered by a tuft,
which is of an irregular oval shape, of about one and a half inch in length, the
hairs which cover it being an inch long, lying flat and backwards, with shorter
hairs extending down the leg several inches below the space.
     The hairs on the body generally are very coarse, rather short; longest on
the back of the ham, where the whitish patch and the black line on the latter
unite.
     The tail, which in summer is not bushy, is thinly clothed with hair running
to a point.  A young male has its horns which are in velvet, nearly
perpendicular running but slightly backwards to the length of fourteen inches,
where they divide into three short prongs.


                                    COLOUR.

     Male.
     Muzzle, nostrils, and hoofs, black; head, dark brown; neck, rather darker,
being nearly black; on each side, of the under jaw there is a longitudinal white
patch, between which there is a large black stripe extending along the lines of
the under jaw, dividing about four inches from the mouth, and continuing
downward to the throat, where it unites again and is diffused in the general
black colour of the throat and neck, leaving in its course a white space between
the bone of the lower jaw, nearly as large as a man's hand.
     There is no light-coloured ring, or space, around the eyes as in the
European red deer, but in the present species the space around the socket of the
eye is scarcely a shade lighter than the surrounding parts of the head,
     Under surface of the ear, yellowish white, with a, hue of dark brown on the
margin; on the outer surface of the ear, there is a white patch about four
inches in length and nearly two inches wide, covering about a third of the ear,
and running from near the root of the ear upwards at the lower edge
     In the younger males the head, face and back of the neck are not nearly as
dark as in specimens of old animals; the underjaw and throat however as well as
a space above the nostrils are black as in the latter.  The upper and under
surfaces of body and legs are light brownish gray, the legs being rather darker
than the body.
     On the rump there is a broad patch of light grayish white commencing nine
inches above the root of the tail, spreading downward on each side to a point in
the ham, ten inches below the tail.  It is fourteen inches across opposite the
root of the tail, (from one ham to the other,) and twenty-two inches in length
from the back to the termination on the thigh or ham below the tail.  This
grayish white patch is bordered on the thighs by a strongly marked black space
which also separates it all around, although less conspicuously from the general
colour of the body.   We have observed that in young specimens this pale mark on
the rump is less conspicuous, and in one specimen is not even perceptible, and
this peculiarity has most probably misled some of our authors in regard to the
species.
     In specimens of about two years old the light