Here is one of the stately monarchs of the woods and plains. This is the American elk. The same animal is called the wapiti in Europe, and in the same country the name elk is applied to what we call a moose. The elk is a much more stately animal than the moose. He can well be called the king of the deer family. The moose has stocky legs and an unshapely head. He shambles as he runs, with a slouchy gait. The lefs of the elk are clean cut and small. He is very nimble, and because of his small legs, unlike the moose, he keeps away from the swamps. He is about as tall as a horse. Elks formerly lived from the southern limits of Texas, as far north as the forests extend in Canada. They were found from the eastern edge of the Allegheny Mountains to California. They lived on the plains and in the woods. During the summar, many animals were found in the roughest part of the

Rockies, where they climbed to a height of 10,000 feet. Like the buffalo, the elk has disappeared from almost our entire country excepting about the Yellowstone Park. Here there are about 30,000 still left. In the park they are carefully protected from hunters. But some of them are shot each year when they stray outside the park limits. There are a very few wild elk in Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Montana, and Idaho. Every great zoological garden, however, contains a small herd. The animals are easily raised, and therefore a favorite with the park keepers. THe elk you see here is about 8 feet tall, and his fine antlers have a spread of about 4 feet and would measure some 5 feet from root to tip. He weighs about 1000 pounds. To what family of animals does the elk belong? In what way does he differ from the moose?