378 Dr. N. SevertzofF on the Mammals of Turkestan. 



the end of August in the fir-woods of Shamsi in the Alexan- 

 drovsk mountains. 



C. canadensis is exactly similar to the present species in its 

 winter dress, so much so that I mistook a specimen of G. 

 canadensis in the Zoological Museum of the Academy of 

 Sciences for the present species. This specimen was obtained 

 by Mr. Vosnesensky at the N.W. coast of America. Not 

 even in the coloration could any difference be discovered, except 

 that the light-coloured spot of the Turkestan deer is a little 

 wider at the tail than that of C. canadensis • but on the latter 

 it is just as sharply marked and also surrounded by a stripe. 

 The most important difference (except the length of tail) 

 consists in C. canadensis not changing its colour during the 

 summer. A live specimen seen by me in the Zoological Gar- 

 dens at Berlin, in the month of June 1856, and another in 

 the Moscow Gardens, in August, had both the winter dress of 

 the Turkestan deer — the Moscow one being only a little more 

 yellowish on the back, being, however, light with a dark 

 belly. 



0. elaphus is all over brown ; different specimens, however, 

 differ in the coloration, commencing from reddish brown and 

 light brown, and merging even into blackish brown. The 

 belly is lighter ; the hair of the neck is longer, and is, as in the 

 foregoing species, of a greyish-brown colour ; the markings 

 alter very little according to the different seasons of the year, 

 except that the winter hair is rather longer and greyer than 

 the summer dress, and at the hinder portion of the belly 

 during the change of coat, before the rut, some blackish- 

 brown hair appears. The light patch round the tail is not so 

 sharply defined, and only the posterior poi'tion of the thighs 

 and the region round the tail are lighter than the back, being 

 of a brownish-yellow colour. 



The characters in the horns are constant, but not very con- 

 spicuous, as the very considerable differences between indivi- 

 duals of one species are more easily perceived than the specific 

 characters which they have in common, the former depending 

 upon the age and the branching of the antlers. Blasius was 

 almost the first who fully explained these characters in 

 the European species, and especially those of C. elaphus 

 (' Saugeth. Deutschl.' p. 447). He drew attention to the 

 deviation of the beam from its original direction at the point 

 where each antler is given off, which also enabled him to 

 follow the modifications of the beams and of the antlers. Ac- 

 cording to previous diagnoses, the horn of C. elaphus was 

 characterized by the final division of the horn into the ter- 

 minal tines, which could not be exact, for the simple reason 



