Southern Pekin Sika 239 



According to Herr Dorries it is frequently met with in the neighbourhood 

 of the coast among thin forest. The pairing-season, when the old stags 

 are in the habit of calling for an hour at a time, takes place in the latter 

 part of September and the first half of October. Of the specimens sent to 

 Europe nearly all are taken by native hunters at a time when the move- 

 ments of the herds are hampered by heavy falls of fresh snow. Like 

 those ot the Asiatic wapitis, the antlers of the Pekin sika are in great 

 demand in China for medicinal purposes, but whether these deer are ever 

 kept in a semi-domesticated state for the sake of their antlers there is no 

 information available. 



Judging from the Duke of Bedford's herd at Woburn Abbey, and also 

 bearing in mind the climatic conditions of its native country, the Pekin 

 sika is a species admirably adapted tor acclimatisation in Great Britain. 

 The common sika is a comparatively insignificant animal, whose bodily 

 stature is not sufficiently large to make it an efi^ective park deer. But in 

 this respect the Pekin species is all that can be desired ; while the 

 brilliancy of its summer coat and the rich colour of its antlers when in the 

 velvet, coupled with the marked difference between the hue of the summer 

 and winter dress, render it one ot the most strikingly attractive and 

 interesting of the deer family. 



THE SOUTHERN PEKIN SIKA 



{Cervus hortuloriim kopschi) 



The headless and footless skin of a sika in the summer dress recently 

 collected by Mr. F. W. Styan at Chinteh, Aukwei, in the valley of the 

 Yang-tse-kiang, and now in the British Museum (No. i. 3. 2. 20), serves 

 to show that the deer described in 1873 by Mr. Swinhoe ^ under the name 



1 Proc. Zool. Sue. London, 1873, p. •,~j\. 



