Volume 1

A cabinet of quadrupeds / consisting of highly-finished engravings, by James Tookey; from drawings by Julius Ibbetson; with historical and scientific descriptions, by John Church.

  • Church, John, d. before 1805.
Date:
1800?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A cabinet of quadrupeds / consisting of highly-finished engravings, by James Tookey; from drawings by Julius Ibbetson; with historical and scientific descriptions, by John Church. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Generic Characters. Eight cutting teeth in the lower jaw; none in the upper. Horns folid, upright, branched, renewed every year. Synonims. Cervus Elaphus, Linn. Syjt. gs. Cervus Nobilis, Klein Quad. 23. Red Deer, Stag or Hart, Raiifyn. Quad. Le Cere, de Buffon^ vi. 03. tab. ix. x. The female is called a Hind. The young one a Cay^. THE Stag is the ornament of the foreft, and gives a beautiful animation to the folitudes of nature. Its ufual height is three feet and a half, and it meafures fix feet from the end of the nofe to the tail, which is very fiiort and generally eredl; its horns are two feet and a half in length; its eyes are large, its neck long, its thighs and legs flender, and its hoofs divided into two. Its general colour in England is reddifii brown, with a black firipe down the neck and between the flioulders, and fome black about the face. This colour dilFers fomewhat in other countries. The whole form of the animal is excellently calculated for fpeed; it is no wonder, therefore, that the chace of it lias ever been a favourite diverfion to thofe who delight in fuch amufements. The flag has been faid to be very long lived, and many wonderful flories have been related by naturalifts in fupport of this opinion; but, as it arrives at maturity in five or fix years, and the length of an animal’s life is ufually feven times that period, it is very probable that its utmofi; age dues not exceed forty years. The ftate of the horns is the criterion which