242 



Northern Africa. So closely, indeed, are these Deer allied to 

 one another, that it is frequently difficult to say which should 

 be regarded as species, and which as varieties ; and we ought, 

 perhaps, to regard the whole number as local varieties or races 

 of one widely-spread species. To point out how these various 

 Deer differ from one another, would considerably exceed the 

 limits of our space ; and we must, therefore, in the main, 

 confine ourselves to the distribution of the species under 

 consideration, although even this is a matter shrouded in some 

 degree of uncertainty. 



Originally distributed over the greater part of Europe, the 

 Red Deer extends some distance into Western Asia, being 

 found in many parts of Asia Minor, as well as in Trans-Caucasia, 

 although it, at most, only just impinges on the confines of 

 Persia. From the Caucasus, Deer of the present type extend 

 eastwards right away through Northern and Central Asia to 

 Amurland and the North of China. How far the typical Red 

 Deer extends in this direction, or where it is replaced by the 

 so-called C. xanthopygus, and also whether the latter is any- 

 thing more than a variety, are matters on which our judgment 

 must be suspended. Southwards the Red Deer extends into 

 Algeria and other parts of Northern Africa, the African race 

 being distinguished by the absence of the " bez "-tine of the 

 antlers. Of the allied species, we may mention by name the 

 North American Wapiti (C. canadensis\ the nearly similar 

 Thian Shan Stag (C. eustephanus\ the Kashmir Stag (C. cash- 

 mirianu3\ represented by a variety in Yarkand, the Persian 

 Maral (C. marat), the Shou (C. affinis) of the inner eastern 

 Himalaya, and the Lhasa Stag (C. thoroldi) of the Tibetan 

 plateau ; the last-named species agreeing with the North 

 African variety of the Red Deer in the absence of the " bez "- 

 tine. 



As regards their distribution in the British Isles, Red Deer 



