HYBRIDITY OF THE CERVID.E. 317 



six years previously. They had thriven and bred well in the bleak 

 mountain climate of the Berchtesgaden. 



" Out of the fourteen, seven were hinds far gone with calf. The keeper 

 who had charge of them entered at the time of the j^urchase into the 

 service of the Prince. It took three days to transport the animals by 

 rail to Pless, where they were provided on their arrival with accommo- 

 dation similar in every respect to that wdiich they had enjoyed in Berch- 

 tesgaden. At the end of a week two died, and a few days later seven 

 more, after an illness of some hours. Three more were attacked, but 

 saved by the use of proper remedies. The disease was a distemper 

 brought on by feeding on the sour-forest grass, and is called in German 

 ' Anthraxkrankheit,' of which there are different phrases, Milzbrand, 

 Lungenbrand, Karbuncles Euche. 



" The survivors were removed to higher and healthier ground. An- 

 other fell a victim to the distemper, and four now remained, which mul- 

 tiplied rapidly. I^lvery hind dropped her calf regularly. The deer 

 were unaffected by cold ; for in a temperature of fifteen degrees to twen- 

 ty-three degrees below zero (Reaumur), they lay out in an exposed 

 windy spot. Still the distemj^er renewed its attacks every year, and 

 sometimes with deadly result, so that the stock fluctuated in numbers be- 

 tween two and fourteen. 



"The breeding of the pure Wapiti appearing to be a failure, it was 

 decided to try a cross with the native red deer, although zoologists had 

 pronounced this to be an impossibility, or at least had predicted that the 

 offspring would be sterile. 



" Fifteen hinds of the common red deer breed were taken and en- 

 closed in the neighborhood of the Wapitis ; and in the rutting season a 

 three-year old Wapiti stag was admitted to them. A two-year old 

 Wapiti stag got five calves. Half-breed hinds, when three years old, 

 bore calves, and thus the fecundity of the hybrids was a fait accompli in 

 spite of the zoologists. As the supply of two-year old Wapiti stags 

 failed they were replaced by yearlings, which, however, invariably died. 

 The two-year old stags of half breed were enclosed and separated from 

 the hinds. A two-year old Wapiti stag admitted to the half bred hinds 

 was replaced by one of mixed breed. The produce of the hinds proved 

 that the cross of the Wapiti stag with half breeds was a success. 



" Early in 1868 all the pure Wapitis except one had died, and there 

 remained twenty-eight head of half breeds, of which three or four had 

 been twice and some once, crossed with pure Wapiti. The breeding 

 with the half blooded stock is to be continued, and they are to be let 

 into the open forest when the present space becomes too small. 



" The half breed deer is of colossal size, little inferior to a Wapiti in 

 bulk and antlers. Its roar is less sonorous than that of the red deer. A 

 four-year old half breed, twice crossed, carries large antlers with four- 

 teen points. In general appearance it resembles the red deer but is 

 larger." 



