i 



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



large luiinbcr i^t" these deer in the park at Pekin, but even then they 

 seem to Iiave been quite luiknuwii in a wild state. 



Regarding the subsecjuent t'ate o[ the Pekin herd inhirniation is 

 afforded by a letter tvoiu Or. S. W. Bushell, dated July 1S9S, antl puiilisheil 

 ill the ProcwJiiigs of t/ic Zoological Socictv of London tor the same year. 



'' I am well acquainted, "' w lites the Doctor, "• with the habits ot the 

 Khiphnrus davidionus^ and used often to ride among the herds which 

 formerly swarmed in the Nim llai-tzu, the Imperial Hunting Park south 

 ot lacking, which is enclosed by a wall 4<j miles in circuit. Hut toiu' 

 years ago [1S94] the brick wall was breached in many places by the 

 waters ot the Hun \\o^ as they tiooded the adjoining country, and the deer 

 escaped, to be dex'oured by the famine-stricken peasantry. I tear that 

 none are lett, but will make further inquiry when 1 return to my post 

 next year. It is ^trauLje that ni^ie ha\e been touml wiUl in Kashgaria, 

 which is said by a Chinese author ot" the early part of the last [eighteenth] 

 century to be the nati\e country of this peculiar deer, which they call the 

 ' Ssu pil hsiang," or ' Four unlikes.' " 



As nothing has subsequently been heard of the siu-vi\al ot any 

 members ot the imperial 1km\1s in the neighbourhood of Pekin, it may be 

 concluded that they all perished in the manner indicated in Dr. BushelTs 

 letter. And there is but little hope of the species being found in the wiUl 

 state in I'.'astern Turkestan, if indeed that country really be its original 

 habitat, as stated by the Chinese writer referred to abm^e. 



Fortiuiately, long betore the extermination (A the imperial hertls at 

 Pekin a considerable number of specimens of this most interesting deer 

 had been brought to luirope, where it has bred readily. A pair were 

 presented in 1S69 to the Zoological Society of Lomlon by the late Sir 

 Rutherford Alcock, and a second pair were purchased by the Society in 

 1883. (^f late years the Duke of Bedford has been forming a herd at 

 Woburn Abbey, which now (June 1901) includes oyer twenty head. So 



