THE JAPANESE-DEER GROUP 939 



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time until about eight in the morning they continue feeding almost without interrup- 

 tion, after which they indulge in a midday siesta. During this midday rest they can 

 be easily approached. About four o'clock in the evening they once more commence 

 feeding, in which occupation they continue till dusk. In winter they are often 

 pressed for food, and when the snow lies deep on the ground each party occupies a 

 small area, over which the snow is trampled down as hard as ice, while all the trees 

 are gnawed bare both of bark and leaves as high as the animals can reach. 



When wapiti were found on the great prairies, the Indians were accustomed to 

 hunt them on horseback by forming a wide circle of mounted men, from which a 

 certain number were detached to harass the unfortunate animals until they were 

 brought to a standstill. Another favorite method was by forming a cordon of horse- 

 men and driving a whole herd over a precipice. At the present day the more 

 sportsman-like method of hunting is, however, almost exclusively employed, and it 

 appears that the wapiti is an animal far less difficult to approach than the red deer, 

 while it is killed by a comparatively-slight wound. 



THE JAPANESE-DEER GROUP (Cervus sika, etc.) 



The prettily-marked Japanese deer represents a group differing from the last by 

 the antlers having no bez-tine, so that each has usually but four points, and also by 

 the coat being spotted with white in summer, although uniformly brown during 

 winter. Moreover, the proportionate length of the tail is much greater than in the 

 red-deer group, and the large white patch on the buttocks is completely bordered 

 with black. All the deer of this group are of medium dimensions, and for the most 

 part inhabitants of Eastern Asia. 



The Japanese deer, from Japan and Northern China, stands somewhat lower at 

 the shoulder than a fallow deer, and has the ground color of the fur dark or yel- 

 lowish brown, with the greater part of the tail white. These deer are very abundant 

 in Northern Japan and parts of China, where they frequent dense forests, generally 

 in hilly regions. The only way of shooting them is by beating the country with a 

 large number of men. The Japanese deer has been introduced into several parks in 

 Ireland and England, where it thrives well, sometimes interbreeding with the red deer. 

 The Manchurian deer (C. manchuricus) , of Northern China, may 

 probably be regarded merely as a larger variety of the last, in which 

 the coat is generally darker colored, with a larger dark area on the up- 

 per surface of the tail. 



Dybowski's deer (C. dybowskii}, from Manchuria, appears, how- 

 1 s ever, to be a distinct species of relatively-large size, easily recognized 

 by its pure white muzzle. The ordinary length of the antlers is about 

 twenty-two inches, but a pair, having five tines each, which have been referred to 

 this species, measure upward of thirty-five and one-half inches. 



Better known than the last is the Formosan deer (C. taevanus) from 

 the mountains of the island from which it takes its name. The body 

 color is lighter than in the other species, while the spots have a tend- 

 ency to persist during the winter; the tail being white with a black streak down the 



