146 MAMMALS

shed their horns ; but the earliest deer had no horns,
the next earliest had simple antlers with only two
branches, and in the modern deer we have species
with no horns, species with simple horns, species in
which the male only has horns, and one species, the
reindeer, in which both the males and females have
horns and do not shed them.

The deer of the Eastern Hemisphere mostly
belong tothe genus Cervus. The red-deer, C. elaphus,
is found in Europe, North Africa, and Asia Minor, and
perhaps further eastward ; but in this country and in
Central Europe it would have been extinct long ago ©
had it not been protected. In Kashmir the red-deer
is represented by the closely allied hangul, in North-
Eastern India by the larger shou. A somewhat similar
species to these is the North American wapiti, C.
canadensis, still plentiful in the wooded western
mountains. Like all the deer, the males of this species
fight very much during the pairing season. As an
example of this we may quote from Mr. T. Roosevelt,
who describes a characteristic battle which he wit-
nessed. He says: ‘Two bull elk were engaged in
deadly combat while two others were looking on. It
was a splendid sight. The great beasts faced each
other with lowered horns, the manes that covered their
thick necks and the hair on their shoulders bristling
and erect. Then they charged furiously, the crash of
the meeting antlers resounding through the valley.
The shock threw them both on their haunches ; with
locked horns and glaring eyes they strove against each
other, getting their hind legs well under them, straining
every muscle in their huge bodies, and squealing’