382 Dr. N. SevertzofF on the Mammals of Turhestan. 



Even in captivity the difference in the colour can be 

 noticed, which probably depends upon the climate, as the 

 specimen of C canadensis in the Berlin Zoological Gardens 

 is greyer in summer than the specimen in the Moscow 

 Gardens. I have also noticed the fact that Equus kemtonusy 

 which in summer is dun and in winter mouse-grey on the 

 steppes, has remained mouse-grey all the year round in the 

 menagerie of St. Petersburg. On the other hand, the differ- 

 ence between C. maral and C. elajjJius is very ancient, and 

 originated at a period of time Avhen Europe and Asia were 

 separated by the sea, which at the Pliocene period occupied 

 the present deserts of Persia, Turcomania, the Kirgies steppe, 

 and Barbary (in the western portion of Siberia), as far as the 

 Arctic Ocean, thus connecting it with the Indian Ocean. 

 These deserts and steppes prove, by their salt lakes and plains 

 and the shells that are now and then dug out of the ground, 

 that here there was once a sea ; and at present they form 

 the limit where C. elaphus and C. maral meet each other. 

 This limit at different times has been 

 different. There was a time when 

 C. elaphus was distributed as far as 

 the Ural mountains ; this is proved 

 by a horn which was dug out of the 

 bed of the Ural river, a little below 

 the town of Ural, and which is now 

 in the Ural Army Museum. I give 

 a drawing of it here. 



Judging from the form of the 

 crown of this horn, it certainly be- 

 longs to C. elaphuSy and does not 

 differ at all from the recent horns of 

 that species. It is true that in the 

 present specimen the antlers are more 

 curved ; but some specimens are also 

 met with in which they are quite 

 straight. The present specimen, how- 

 ever, is typical in the varied directions 

 of the crown-points, which I have 

 shown to be the best characteristic 

 of the horns of C. elaphus, and which 

 are very plainly marked in this Ural horn. This horn has 

 seven points — one brow-antler, two lateral points, and four 

 crown-points, which are placed in pairs and are all close to 

 one another. 



I am sorry to say that I cannot state from which strata this 

 horn was derived, as it had been already washed by the river 



