The Cashmerian Deer, or Barasingha, again, is hardly distinguishable from the Wapiti. Professor Leith Adams remarks, with reference to it, that “the Cashmere forests seem the head-quarters of this species on the western ranges, for it is seldom, if ever, met with between Mussouree and the Vale of Cashmere. The dense forests and fertile valleys of the latter country are particularly inviting to this species. In habits and general appearance the Cashmere Stag bears a striking resemblance to the Red Deer. Although it is seldom, nowadays, that individuals of the latter species escape the hunter so long as to attain the size and magnitude of the Barasingha [twelve points], yet I think it will be found that the horns of those killed in the forests of Scotland in former years are equal in size to any at present met with in Cashmere. It is in the dense pine forests on the Northern Pinjal, and in the many beautiful valleys among these ranges, that we find the species most abundant. There are very few on the southern ranges. In the secluded depths of these solitudes they lie all day, to issue forth at dusk and feed on the grassy hill-sides, or descend even into the Valley of Cashmere when forced by the snows of winter. An adult Stag averages thirteen hands in height. The colour of the coat varies but little in the sexes or the seasons of the year; dark liver-colour, with reddish patches on the inner sides of the hips; belly and lower parts white, or a dirty white. The male has the hair on the lower part of the neck long and shaggy (wanting in the female); the horns large, and usually very massive, with from ten to fifteen or more points, according to age (the largest pair of horns I have measured were four feet round the curves, with six and seven points). They are shed in March; and the new horn is not completely formed until the end of October, when the rutting season commences, and the loud bellowings of the Stags are heard all over the mountains. During vigorous winters they are frequently driven to seek for shelter and food around the villages in the valleys, when many are destroyed by natives, who hunt them with Dogs. The Cheetahs, Wild Dogs, and Bears are said to kill the young.”
The very similar Barbary Deer is most interesting, in that it is the only member of the Cervine group which is found in Africa.
FALLOW DEER.
THE SUB-ELAPHINE DEER.[32]
The JAPANESE, FORMOSAN, and MANTCHURIAN DEER are all species allied to those just described, but differing in being smaller in size, at the same time that the antlers conform to the sub-elaphine type, in which the bez-tyne is never present, and the sur-royals are but inconsiderably branched. They are all strongly spotted in their summer dress, which, especially in the Mantchurian—the largest of the species—is most brilliant. In the winter their coats are nearly uniform, and of a dark brown colour. A fawn-red is the groundwork of the summer coat, the spots being yellowish-white, whilst a black streak, in perfect contrast, runs the whole length of the middle of the back, continuing down the tail and expanding slightly at its base. The throat is white. The sombre winter coat is a nearly uniform dark red-brown.
SAMBUR DEER.
The FALLOW DEER (Dama vulgaris), so well known on account of its being preserved in a semi-domesticated state in so many English parks, has antlers constructed upon the same plan as those of the Mantchurian Deer (sub-elaphine). These, however, present special peculiarities found in none of the allied species, for they are palmated in their upper parts, in the region of the sur-royals, the digitations or terminal points being developed along the convex posterior margins of the palmated surface. The buck is about three feet high at the shoulder. The head is short and broad, the tail between seven and eight inches long. The colour of the wild animal, both buck and doe, is a rich yellowish-brown in summer, spotted with white all over. In winter the tints are more sombre and greyish. Domestic varieties vary immensely, both in the distinctness of the spotting and the general colouration. Until six years of age the buck receives a separate name each year from sportsmen—fawn, pricket, sorrel, soare, buck of the first lead, and buck complete, being the terms employed—the antlers not being developed at all in the fawn, being simple snags in the pricket, with two front branches in the sorrel, with slight palmation of the extremity of the beam in the soare, and the whole antler larger and larger until the sixth year. The venison of the Fallow Deer is fatter than that of the Red Deer, and is preferred by most.