THE DEER OF THE PEKING PARKS 277 



stated that he had formerly ridden among the herds which 

 swarmed in the imperial park, where they appear to have 

 been reserved for the sport of the Court, and were care- 

 fully protected. Whether, in later years, less care was 

 taken than formerly to see that the park and its sur- 

 rounding wall were in good condition, the account does 

 not state; but during or about the year 1894 the Hun-ho, 

 which flows through the park, became flooded, and 

 breached the wall in several places. Through the gaps 

 thus made all the mi-lou deer escaped, and appear to 

 have been killed and eaten by the peasantry of the sur- 

 rounding districts, who were suffering at that time from 

 famine. In his letter Dr. Bushell promised to make in- 

 quiries on his return to China if any of the deer had 

 escaped destruction, but as nothing more has been heard 

 from him on the subject, it may be presumed that all were 

 slaughtered. 



Assuming, then, that the mi-lou deer does not exist 

 in a wild state in some unexplored part of Kashgaria, 

 or other remote part of Central Asia, it seems only 

 too evident that its sole living representatives are those 

 preserved in European collections. By far the greater 

 number of these are now at Woburn Abbey, where they 

 run in the open park with the other deer. They breed 

 freely, without an undue proportion of males among the 

 fawns ; a very hopeful sign being that some hinds pur- 

 chased from Paris, where they were sterile, bred after they 

 were transferred to their new quarters. Some time ago 

 the herd at Woburn numbered over twenty head, and it 

 has probably increased since that date. One point in 

 favour of the prospects of the survival of the Woburn 

 herd is the fact that the species has for centuries been 

 kept in a state of semi-domestication — that is to say it has 



