ORDER ARTIODACTYLA : EVEN -TOED UNGULATES 449 



law. Despite this there is still quite a trade going on. There are, 

 however, a few wapiti in eastern Siberia." (G. G. Goodwin, in litt., 

 May, 18, 1937.) 



W. G. Heptner writes (in litt., December, 1936) that during the 

 last decades the numbers have decreased, and this Wapiti is now 

 common only in the most remote mountain regions. It is most 

 frequent in the Sikhota Alin (Ussuri territory) and especially in 

 the great reserves, comprising 1,000,000 hectares. The hunting of 

 males is allowed. 



Ala-shan Wapiti 



CERVUS ELAPHUS ALASHANICUS Bobrinskoy and Flerov 



Cervus canadensis alashanicus Bobrinskoy and Flerov, Arch. Mus. Zool. Univ. 



Moscou, vol. 1, p. 29, 1934. (The Ala-shan, Inner Mongolia.) 

 FIG.: Bobrinskoy and Flerov, 1934, p. 40, fig. 



While no information concerning the present numerical status 

 of the Wapiti in the Ala-shan is available, it is no doubt seriously 

 threatened in the same manner as the neighboring forms. 



It was found in the Ala-shan, west and north of the Yellow 

 River, by Prejevalsky, who reports on it (1876, vol. 1, pp. 261-262) 

 as follows: "Deer are plentiful in the Ala-shan mountains, where 

 they are strictly preserved by order of the prince. They are never- 

 theless killed secretly, especially in summer, at the season of the 

 growth of the young horns, so valuable in China. While we were 

 in the mountains . . . the loud call-note of the males resounded in 

 the forests day and night." One specimen was secured. 



This specimen has been made the type of Bobrinskoy and 

 Flerov's alashanicus. Their paper is wholly in Russian. 



The following records may be at least provisionally considered 

 as applying to the same form. In 1912 and 1913 Sowerby (1918, 

 pp. 122-128, 207-208) found numbers of Wapiti in the mountains of 

 the Kueihuacheng district of northern Shansi (now in Suiyan) . R. 

 C. Andrews (1920, pp. 358, 372) records three specimens from 

 northern Shansi, and remarks: "The elk of north China will soon 

 be extinct." A. B. Howell (1929, p. 76) records six specimens from 

 west of Kueihuacheng, Shansi. 



"The North China wapiti is found in the mountains of Suiyan 

 Province on the Mongolian border of Shansi, westward into Ninghsia 

 .... It occurs only in more or less restricted areas, is nowhere 

 abundant, and is much hunted." (Arthur de C. Sowerby, in litt., 

 April 24, 1937.) 



