THE WAPITI OF KANSU 203 



will quickly clear a valley. I never saw one alive, 

 but we came across some skins which are red in 

 colour. 



An adult stag stands about 57 inches at the 

 shoulder, and weighs (approximately) 530 lb. A 

 North American wapiti will scale about 700 lb. 

 In appearance the Chinese beast is very much like 

 a Scotch red deer, though of course larger in every 

 sense. He has, how^ever, more or less similar dark 

 markings on the haunches and tail, instead of the 

 uniformly coloured rump patch of his big relation. 

 He is in the winter brown-grey all over, and has 

 not the distinctive dark neck and light body of the 

 American animal. The legs are darker than the 

 body. The hinds are relatively smaller, and I was 

 much struck by the apparently abnormal size of 

 their ears. 



I saw only three stags and cannot, therefore, 

 speak with authority as to their horn-growth. 

 They shed in April, the horns being complete in 

 September, They are said to start roaring about 

 the third week in October, though we did not hear 

 one until the 1st of November. 



Their roar is quite different from the wonderful 

 ringing bugle of the North American wapiti, which 

 is one of the most musical sounds emitted by a 

 wild animal. It resembles the sound made by a 

 red deer, but is rather deeper in tone, and in the 

 case of one or two stags I heard there w^as just a 

 suspicion of " bugling " at the end of the roar. 



We were very uncertain until our return to 

 England to which species of deer the stags we 

 had killed belonged. 



Dr. Smith killed a hind in March, 1911, which 



