66 Game of Europe, W. & N. Asia & America 



rutting time. The red deer in all its forms, both in Europe and Asia, 

 utters at this season a deep hoarse roar, ending in three or tour loud grunts, 

 which may be imitated by the human voice with the aid of a conch-shell 

 or glass bottle. On the other hand, the wapiti in all its races (Asiatic and 

 American) has a very different cry, which is described by hunters as a 

 whistle. Although I have never listened to this cry myself, I have heard 

 hunters in the Altai imitate it with the hollow stem of a plant, whilst in 

 America a tin whistle is used for the same purpose. Radde, who, in his 

 well-known and valuable work on the natural history of Amurland, regards 

 the stag of the East Sagansk Mountains and Dahuria as a race of Cervus 

 clnphus, mentions this pecuRur cry and reduces it to musical notation." 



In a footnote the author adds the following : — 



" Mr. J. E. Harting informs me that the notes indicated by Radde 

 accurately express the call ot the wapiti as heard by him repeatedly in the 

 Regent's Park Zoological Gardens, and are quite unlike the call of the 

 European red deer." 



These observations are fully confirmed by Mr. P. W. Church, who 

 describes the call of the Altai wapiti as essentially similar to that of its 

 American representive. 



Our information with regard to this deer in a wild state is extremely 

 scant and unsatisfictory. Captain Elwes writes that it " has now become 

 scarce in a wild state in the Russian Altai, owing to the number which are 

 shot by the native and Russian hunters, who sell their horns, if killed while 

 ' in the velvet,' at high prices to the Chinese. They are, however, kept 

 alive in parks at several places in the Altai for the sake of their horns, 

 which are annually cut for sale, and which sometimes realise as much as 

 loo roubles [jTio] a pair at the rate of lo roubles a pound. The killing 

 of these deer has now been prohibited in the Altai district, and we never 

 saw the animal in a wild state ; and though we picked up horns, shed 

 many years previously, in the high treeless mountains south of the Tehuja 



