384 Dr. N. Severtzoff on the Mammals of Turkestan. 



July the newly-grown horns are soft ; and this is the time 

 when these animals are mostly pm-sued by the Cossacks for 

 the sake of their horns, which are readily bought by the 

 Chinese people. In August the horns become hard j and in 

 September the rut commences ; the change of coat usually 

 begins in the month of August. A young stag in my collec- 

 tion, shot on the 24th September at the sources of the river 

 Merca, to the west from Vemoe, is 5' 10" long, and 3' 8" high 

 at the shoulders. Like the old specimens, it was already in 

 the full winter dress ; but the horns were only just commencing 

 to grow, forming two very small points on the skull. I 

 reckoned that it was born in April, the more so as I saw 

 in September a young hind of the same size, and also in 

 winter dress, which had been caught alive in July when it was 

 quite small. According to this the period of gestation would 

 extend for about seven and a half months, namely from the 

 beginning of September to the end of April or May. 



A maral stag, if caught when young, is very easily tamed ; 

 the one seen by me in Vernoe followed its master like a dog, 

 and was also very friendly with strangers. It used to eat out 

 of one's hands, and sometimes even would walk into the rooms, 

 where it smelled and looked at every thing ; sometimes it ran 

 about the town, and, in fact, knew the streets very well 

 indeed, as it came home by itself and never lost its way. It 

 fed on any plants it could get hold of, on hay, oats, barley, 

 bread, boiled and raw potatoes, cabbage and all sorts of roots, 

 and was very partial to the leaves of apple-trees. 



M. W. P. Semenoff also kept a stag for about six years. 

 It was always allowed to run about at liberty, sometimes 

 keeping in the mountains for several days, but always coming 

 back again. During the breeding-season it associated with 

 the wild deer ; but after this season was over it came back 

 again to stables, which it very seldom left during the winter. 

 It must have been ultimately killed by some sportsmen who 

 mistook it for a wild deer. 



The soft horns were every year cut off and sold to the 

 Chinamen ; and in several places stags are kept and bred for 

 that purpose, especially in the Altai Zabaikalje. 



I obtained a female specimen for my collection even further 

 than Issik-kul, namely from the fir-woods of Semsha in the 

 Thian-Shan mountains, on the 9th July, in a very much 

 worn summer dress : this also proves the above-stated time of 

 the animal's change of coat. There is very little doubt that 

 it occurs in the fir-woods of the Alexandrovsk mountains, 

 and still further west than Semsha, at least about the river 

 Ala-archa. 



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