72 Game of Europe, W. Sc N. Asia & America 



identified with the turnier, and his C. maral^ v;ir. {iisiatica) songarica, with the 

 hitter. 



The next year Captain H. J. Elwes,^ while omitting all reference to C. 

 xanthopygus^ recognised three races of " Ccrvus astaticus " (or C. canadensis 

 asiatkus)^ which he proposed to call {a) var. songarica, from the Thian Shan 

 and South Altai ; {h) var. sibirica, from the Altai ; and (r) var. hicdorfi, from 

 North and East Manchuria. 



Finally, in 1901, the present yNvhev [Great and Small Game of India^etc., 

 p. 206), from the examination of living specimens at Woburn Abbey and 

 of antlers from Manchuria, fully accepted the identity of C. liiedorji with 

 C. xanthopygiis, mentioning that this animal was in certain respects inter- 

 mediate between a wapiti and a red deer, and, pending further investigations, 

 alluding to it by the latter name. 



If the view here entertained that the Thian Shan and Siberian wapitis 

 form local races of the true wapiti of America, and if the migration ot deer 

 between the Old and New Worlds took place by way of Bering Strait, it is 

 practically imperative to regard C. xanthopygus (which occupies the inter- 

 mediate area between the habitats of the Thian Shan, Siberian, and West 

 American wapitis) as another local race of the same species, in spite ot 

 the fact that its summer coloration departs somewhat widely from the true 

 wapiti type, and that its antlers differ to a certain extent, from those of the 

 Thian Shan, Siberian, and American forms. Nevertheless, the antlers of 

 xanthopygus are essentially of the wapiti, as distinguished from the red deer 

 type, and the variation in the colour o{ the summer dress from that type 

 may be attributed either to a retention of affinity with the red deer (if that 

 be the earlier form — and the length of its tail suggests that this may be 

 the case) or to specialisation in the same direction as that taken by the red 

 deer. 



In regard to its antlers, the present animal, as already mentioned, con- 



1 Jotini. Linn. Soc. London — " Zool." vol. xxvii. p. 36. 



