Dr. N. SevertzofF on the Mammals of Turkestan. 383 



from its original matrix before it was dug out of the river's 

 bed. 



One of the branches is broken off ; but the horn has evi- 

 dently not been carried far by the stream, as its natural in- 

 equalities of surface were quite evident and not at all water- 

 worn ; it also retains its pedestal, and consequently was not 

 a cast horn. Still, after some comparisons, the time may- 

 yet be easily fixed when C. elaphus inhabited the Ural, this 

 being further east than it occurs now, towards the limit of the 

 distribution of C. maral. It could not have been during the 

 Glacial period, as at that time the whole of European Eussia 

 formed the bottom of a sea; nor could it have been much 

 earlier, as the horn dug out of the Ural so closely resembles 

 the recent ones. Consequently there remains the conclusion 

 that G. elaphus inhabited the Ural after the glacial period : 

 probably it may have been at the period of the deposition 

 of the " black earth," which extends from Galicia as far as 

 the Syrt, including the region watered by the rivers Volga 

 and Dnjepr. The eastern frontier of the occurrence of 

 G. elaphus at the present time runs between the Baltic and 

 the Black Sea, meeting there the elk. Towards the south 

 G. elaphus is distributed over the Balcan peninsula, Asiatic 

 Turkey, and the Caucasus. It is very probable that, at the 

 time when the elk arrived in the forests between the Vistula 

 and the Altai, it drove out G. elaphus from these localities and 

 forced it to go further west ; whilst G. maral has been driven 

 away further to the south-east. At the time when G. elaphus 

 was distributed as far as the river Ural, G. maral may have 

 occurred further west than it does now, namely up to the 

 basin of the Tobol and river Turgai and Sari-sa. It is even 

 now met there, but only occasionally, in the forests of the 

 Karkalinsk and Bayan-aulsk mountains. To the south from 

 the Altai the maral, avoiding the steppes of Nor-saysan, inha- 

 bits the mountain-forests which extend over the Thian-Shan 

 range. In Kussian Siberia it has been met with on the Semi- 

 retchje and the Zailisky Alatau, in the mountains near Issik- 

 kul and Narin, everywhere in fir-woods, and only occasionally 

 in the greenwood districts. In summer it feeds even on the 

 Alpine meadows, above the fir-district, and by night it always 

 descends lower down to rest. In spring it sometimes feeds on 

 the new leaves of bushes. It grazes usually about dusk — that 

 is, early in the morning and late in the evening, resting and 

 ruminating during the day. I obtained one at ten o'clock in 

 the morning of the 20th September, when it was resting. 



The horns are cast in spring ; by the Thian-Shan deer about 

 the end of April to May. During the months of June and 



