Northern Pekin Sika 



2-35 



definitely made. For any one who has seen full-grown individuals of this 

 extremely handsome deer in the bright chestnut and white summer coat, 

 and is then shown the same animals six months later, when they have 

 acquired the long, shaggy, and almost uniformly dark brown dress of 

 winter, will find it hard to believe that he has the same species before 

 him. The change is little short of marvellous. Indeed to gain a full 

 idea of the seasonal variations in length and colour of coat in this deer, it 



Fig. 56. — Pckin Sika Stag in the Summer Coat, with the Antlers in Velvet. Photographed at 

 Woburn Abbey by the Duchess of Bedford. 



would be necessary that the same individuals should be painted once a 

 month for at least a year. 



When the Deer of All Lands was written there were no fully adult 

 examples of the Pekin deer living in this country, and the immature stag 

 and hinds represented in plate ix. of that work fail to give any adequate 

 idea of the animal when in its full development. Now, however, the 

 Duke of Bedford has a very large herd of these sikas, which are turned 

 loose in the park at Woburn Abbey, and show, at the proper season of the 

 year, the antlers of the stags in their full development. It is a stag from 



