LÖN>'BERG, ON THE GEOGR. RACES OF RED DEER IN SCANDIN. 3 



print in the following pages, but 1 have on several occasions 

 publicly shown them to my auditory long before this. 



The aberrant exteriör of the norwegian red deer com- 

 pared with that of Germany has before this time been noti- 

 ced by a german sportsman Leverkus-Leverkusen who 

 vvrote about this in »Der Weidmann» ^ a short statement, 

 »dass das Norwegische Rothwild in der Farbe. der Form des 

 Kopfes, der geringeren Starke, der zierlicheren Bauart und 

 durch die fast mangelnde Mälme Avesenthch von dem deut- 

 schen Edelwild abweicht». 



With regard to exteriör characters the norwegian Red 

 Deer differs from the swedish through its much smaller size. 

 The swedish stag is also provided with a well developed 

 måne of long hairs on the neck. The swedisli red deer are 

 in their summer-coat decidedly darker than the norwegian 

 ones. The general colour of the' former is dark reddish 

 brown, almost chestnut, and the le^s very dark sooty or 

 blackish brown, while the general colour of the latter is 

 yellowish brown with a tinge of grey and the legs much pa- 

 ler, slaty brownish gre3^ The caudal disk of the latter is 

 also lighter, somewhat reddish yellow, and bordered by black- 

 ish. The caudal disk of the swedish red deer is less pro- 

 nounced. It is sometimes not much lighter than the flanks 

 and although it is bordered by a darker shade towards the 

 tighs this dark colour ne ver takes the shape of a black 

 stripe. In winter-coat the sw^edish red deer are paler than 

 during the summer and the caudal disk is almost straw 

 yellow but without black borders. The absence of a defined 

 black or blackish stripe bordering the caudal disk seems to 

 be a very good character for the distinction of the swedish 

 red deer from those of Germany as well. 



The characters derived from the skulls of the two Scan- 

 dinavian races of red deer are also very conspicuous. As 

 a rule the swedish deer have larger skulls with a basicranial 

 lengtli of more than 325 mm. even when the hinds are coun- 

 ted in. The largest norwegian deer skulls have in average a 

 basicranial length of 310 mm. or less, but then I have obtain- 

 ed as a singular exeption for the collections of the R. Swe- 

 dish Zoological Museum in Stockholm a very large skull of a 

 stag from Hitteren in Norway with a basicranial leugth of no 



' Bd. XXTII X:o 29, p. 247. 



