462 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



Yarkand Stag 



CERVUS YARKANDENSIS Blanford 



Cervus [cashmirianus] yarkandensis Blanford, Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1892, 



p. 117, 1892. ("Eastern Turkestan." 1 ) 

 FIGS.: Blanford, 1892a, p. 116, fig.; Lydekker, 1901, pi. 4, fig. 2; Hedin, 1904, 



p. 279, fig.; Leche, 1904, p. 45, fig. 56; Lydekker, 1915, vol. 4, p. 140, 



fig. 25. 



This animal, which is apparently restricted to Chinese Turkestan, 

 is said to be "practically extinct" (Morden, 1927, p. 123) . 



It is a rufous-fawn deer, with a large and well-defined orange 

 rump patch, which includes the tail; antlers usually five-tined, the 

 terminal fork placed at right angles to the middle line of the head, 

 so as to look directly forwards; fifth tine larger than the fourth, 

 and generally inclined inwards; length of antlers on outside curve 

 up to 41^ inches (Lydekker, 1915, vol. 4, p. 139; Ward, 1935, pp. 

 8-9). Height, 55 inches (Cumberland, 1895, p. 153). 



According to Blanford (1892a, p. 117), "Prejvalski . . . found 

 this Deer common around the Lower Tarim and Lobnor in 1876." 



In 1889-90 Cumberland (1895, pp. 145-160) found the species 

 rather common at various points between Yarkand and Aksu. 



Leche (1904, pp. 45-49) records a skeleton from the Cherchen 

 Darya and a skull from the vicinity of Kashgar, and adds that Sven 

 Hedin met with this deer at various places along the Tarim River. 

 He also presents a figure of a tamed individual. Hedin (1905, p. 

 389) refers to the species as plentiful along the Cherchen Darya. 



"The Yarkand stag ... is found on the lower courses of the 

 Kashgar, Yarkand and Khotan Rivers, and on the main Tarim. 



"These stags are fairly numerous, but very difficult to hunt .... 



"The natives, of course, are always after them in the summer 

 when their horns are still soft . . . whereas during the period when 



1 Contradictory statements by Lydekker indicate a state of confusion in regard 

 to the type specimen and the exact type locality of yarkcwidensis. In Blan- 

 ford's original description (1892a, pp. 116-117) there is no designation of a 

 type. He exhibited before the Zoological Society of London, on February 16, 

 1892, two heads and a skin, "lent for exhibition by Major C. S. Cumberland, 

 who shot the animals in the woods on the Yarkand or Tarim River in 1890." 

 (Of. Cumberland, 1895.) Blanford also presented notes on three heads "ob- 

 tained by Mr. A. O. Hume from Yarkand" and "now in the British Museum"; 

 one of these he figured. It would probably be proper to consider all five or six 

 of the Cumberland and Hume specimens as cotypes. Lydekker states (1913&, 

 p. 35) : "The type [= lectotype?] specimen is a skull, with antlers, presented to 

 the Museum by Major C. S. Cumberland." However, two years later (1915, 

 vol. 4, pp. 139-140) he not only fails to list any skull or antlers from Major 

 Cumberland among the specimens in the British Museum, but he states that 

 specimen "91. 8. 7. 4. Skull and antlers," presented by A. 0. Hume, 1891, is the 

 "type" [= lectotype?] ; this specimen is from the "Maralbashi Forest, Eastern 

 Turkestan," which Lydekker here designates as the "typical locality." Possibly 

 the question of type or lectotype and type locality could be settled by reexamina- 

 tion of the material in the British Museum. 



