Part 11 (1/2)

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 n.o.ble 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.

The _Roebuck_, another species of our parks, is indigenous to both England and Scotland. It is now found plentiful only in the northern parts of Great Britain. It is a native also of Italy, Sweden, Norway, and Siberia.

The _African Deer_ consist of two species, supposed to be varieties of red deer. They are found in Barbary, and usually known as the Barbary Deer. But the fallow-deer also exists in North Africa, in the woods of Tunis and Algiers; and Cuvier has a.s.serted that the fallow-deer originally came from Africa. This is not probable, since they are at present met with over the whole continent of Asia, even in China itself.

We now arrive at the species more especially termed _Asiatic_ or _Indian Beer_. These form a numerous group, containing species that differ essentially from each other.

There is the _Ritsa_, or Great Black Stag of the j.a.panese and Sumatrans.

It is named _black_ stag, from its dark brown colour during winter. It is fully as large as our own stag; and is further distinguished by long hair growing upon the upper part of its neck, cheeks, and throat, which gives it the appearance of having a beard and mane! It inhabits Bengal, and some of the large Indian islands.

The _Samboo_, or _Sambur_, is another large species, not unlike the rusa. It is found in various parts of India, and especially in the tropical island of Ceylon. Several varieties of it have been described by naturalists.

In the Himalaya Mountains there exist two or three species of large deer, not very well-known. One is the Saul Forest Stag, or Bara-singa-- a species almost as large as the Canadian wapiti. Another is the Marl, or Wallich's Stag, which is also found in Persia. Still another species, the Sika, inhabits j.a.pan; and yet another, the Baringa, or Spotted Deer of the Sunderbunds, dwells along the marshy rivers of this last-mentioned territory. Again, there is the Spotted Rusa, and other species, inhabitants of the Saul Forests. In fact, the number of species of Indian deer is far from being accurately ascertained, to say nothing of the very imperfect descriptions given of those that are actually known.

When we come to the great Oriental islands--the Isles of Ind--we find many new and beautiful species; some being large n.o.ble stags, while others are tiny graceful little creatures like gazelles.

In Sumatra and Borneo we have a distinct species of Sambur Deer; in Timor a smaller one; a third exists in Java; and a fourth in the Philippines. In Java, too, we find the beautiful little Muntjak; and another tiny variety in China, called the Chinese Muntjak.

Returning again to the Himalaya country, we encounter, in the plains south of this great chain, the Spotted Axis, so well-known from its beautiful markings, which resemble those of the fawn of our own fallow-deer. But it may be remarked that there are two or three species of spotted deer, and that they inhabit the plains of India--from the Himalayas southward to the Island of Ceylon. Ascending these great mountains, we encounter among their lower slopes another very singular species of cervine creature--the Musk Deer--which, though but little known, is one of the most interesting of its tribe; especially so, as it is from the secreting glands of this curious little animal that most of the celebrated perfume of commerce is obtained.

Crossing the Himalayas, and advancing northwards, we find upon the plains of Central Asia a species of deer, known among the Tartars as Siaga, and to our own naturalists as the Tail-less Roe. Several species entirely unknown to scientific men will yet be discovered, when the immense steppes of Asia come to be explored by observers capable of describing and cla.s.sifying.

Like many another genus of animals, a complete monograph of the deer tribe would be of itself the labour of a life.

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.

QUADRUPEDS WITH POCKETS.

In the year 1711 was brought to France, from the Island of New Guinea, an animal of an unknown species, and one that was singular in many respects; but especially so, from the fact of its having a double skin, covering a part of its belly, and forming a sort of pocket or pouch.

This animal was Le Brun's Kangaroo; very properly named after the naturalist who first described it, since it was the first of the marsupial or pouched animals known to the scientific world.

The Opossums of America were afterwards scientifically described; but it is only of late years that the numerous species and genera of pouched animals--const.i.tuting almost the entire mammalia of the Australian world--have become generally known to Europeans.

The peculiarity of the _pouched_ animals is in reality the _pouch_, common to all of them. Otherwise they differ in many respects--some being carnivorous, others graminivorous, others insectivorous, and so on. In fact, among them we have forms a.n.a.logous to almost all the different groups of ordinary mammalia. Some naturalists have even cla.s.sified them in the different groups, but with little success; and it is perhaps better to keep them together, retaining the ”pouch” as the common characteristic.

The marsupial animals bring forth their young before they are fully developed. The mother places the mouth, of what is little more than a foetus, to her teat; and there it remains till it is able to go alone.

The pouch covers the teats, and serves to protect the young, while the process of development is going on. Even after the little ones are able to run about, they continue to use this singular nest as a place of repose, and a refuge in case of attack by an enemy!

The pouched animals are not entirely confined to the Australian island.

The large island of New Guinea possesses some of them; and there are species in Java, and others of the Asiatic islands. America (both North and South) has the opossums, in numerous species; but it is in Australia, and the contiguous islands of Van Diemen's Land and New Guinea, that we find both the genera and species in greatest numbers.

These countries are, in fact, the head-quarters of the marsupial animals.

The true genera are not numerous, though the species of most of them are; and it is but natural to suppose that many new ones--both genera and species--will yet be discovered, when the vast _terra incognita_ of Australia comes to be explored. In fact, every expedition into the interior brings home with it some new animal that carries a pouch!