CAUCASIAN RED DEER.
In the large amount of black on the thighs they differ, according to the same informant, from Carpathian deer, which are more uniformly coloured, with the general tint decidedly darker.
Although this information is valuable so far as it goes, it unfortunately does not afford a definite clue as to which form of Carpathian deer is referred to (see letters in the Field for 1905, vol. cv., pp. 326 and 355). Mr. Sokalski has, however, a fine pair of Carpathian antlers characterised by their great massiveness, the absence of a bez tine, and the position of the trez tine midway between the brow tine and the curiously compressed and expanded crown. A pair of much younger antlers from the same locality likewise lacks the bez tine. An old antler of the same type from Galicia is figured on page 220 of my Great and Small Game Animals of Europe, N. and W. Asia, and N. America, and two antlers, one from Asia Minor and the other from the Crimea, described and figured by myself in the Zoological Society’s Proceedings for 1890 (p. 363, pl. xxx.), likewise present the same general characteristics, although the reduction of the tines is still greater. Mr. Sokalski also possesses a pair of antlers (one entire and the other imperfect) dug up a few years ago some fifty miles distant from Pilawin which can scarcely be referred to any other deer than the one under consideration, showing the same absence of the bez tine and a similar conformation of the crown.
Assuming all these antlers to belong to the same type—and it is difficult to come to any conclusion—we have evidence of a race of red deer ranging from Volhynia through the Carpathians to Asia Minor and the Crimea. So far as I can determine, this deer seems to agree with Mr. Hamilton Leigh’s “grey Carpathian stag” (Field, 1905, vol. cv., p. 355), a race characterised by the relatively small number of tines to the antlers. That (contrary to Mr. Leigh’s opinion) it is distinct from the maral of Persia and the Caucasus, I have little doubt, and if there were a good specimen in a public collection to take as a type, I should be prepared to suggest for this race the name Cervus elaphus carpathicus.
This, of course, leaves open the question as to the occurrence of other stags in the Carpathians.
Both the Persian and Caucasian red deer (maral) do exceedingly well in the Pilawin preserve, where they will doubtless before long form a big herd. At Antoniny the Count keeps, for hunting purposes, a small number of the so-called Polish deer from the Imperial preserves of Spala, in Poland, which, to my great regret, I had no opportunity of seeing. I trust, however, that he will send a head to the British Museum at no very distant date.
A PEKIN OR DYBOWSKI STAG.
In regard to the other deer at Pilawin, it will suffice to state that two Dybowski fawns were born during the present year.