WAPITI STAG REPOSING.
Perhaps the best way of conveying to the reader an idea of the manner in which the animals are encountered will be by recording the results of our first day’s walk and drive through the park.
After walking a mile or so from the house, the first animal encountered was a fine wapiti stag quietly reposing in one of the large clearings, which allowed us to approach within a couple of hundred yards; soon after, we came across another wapiti stag, accompanied by two hinds of his own species and a couple of Persian red deer hinds. Some little distance farther and we encountered a considerable herd of wapiti, a Persian red deer hind, an Altai wapiti hind, and two hinds of the dark-coloured Yenisei wapiti. A couple of roebuck were next seen darting and leaping through the under-covert, and it was noticed that although one was in the red summer coat, with no white rump-patch, the other wore the olive winter dress, with a conspicuous white blaze. It seems difficult to account for this difference, unless it be that fawns of the year assume the winter dress very early or develop it at once. This is a point in regard to which definite information from sportsmen would be of great value and interest to naturalists.
The next animal seen was a three-year-old bull elk lazily browsing the foliage of the aspens among which it stood, and where indeed it was almost invisible except to the practised eyes of the forester. This elk was recently brought from the estate of Prince S. Radziwill (brother-in-law of the Count) in Lithuania; and since it had experienced a long journey and had been turned out only a few months previous to our visit, it was comparatively tame, so that we were actually able to watch the curious movements of its flabby muzzle as the creature browsed.
A BULL ELK.
To resume the chronicle of our day’s excursion, the next animals seen were three beautiful Dybowski bucks, feeding in swampy pasture by the side of an aspen-forest. The oldest and largest of this handsome trio was purchased from a dealer, but the other two were bred in the forest, and are certainly splendid specimens of their kind. The old buck had his antlers clean, and was already assuming the uniform dark brown winter coat. In the younger bucks, on the other hand, the antlers were still in the bright red “velvet” so characteristic of all the deer of the sika group, and the rufous, white-spotted coat was shown in its full summer beauty. The group formed a lovely picture, the sight of which was alone almost a sufficient reward for the fatigue of the journey from England. We were, moreover, particularly fortunate in coming upon these deer on this occasion, as we never saw them again during the whole course of our sojourn in the park.
THE PEKIN OR DYBOWSKI BUCKS.