Cross-bred Deer 105 



Their colour is greyer, and their coat finer and shorter than any 

 of the parent species, the males of this triple cross carrying very 

 red-deer-like horns, so that several cannot easily be distinguished 

 from extremely fine red deer, such as those which one sees in old 

 German or Austrian castles. 



It is true some of the wapiti-red-deer cross-bred stags retain a little 

 too much of the wapiti type of horn ; but by selecting the type most 

 resembling red deer for crossing with female Altai-red-deer hybrids, 

 one can gradually get a red deer type of horn. 



From the results at present attained, I feel almost sure that this 

 triple cross of wapiti, Altai, and red deer, when interbred (as 

 already mentioned, they are fertile and hardy), can be bred into a 

 superior type of red deer, weighing half as much again, or even 

 more, than ordinary red deer, while they are more strongly built, 

 with a better coat that is to say, finer and shorter hair; and what, 

 of course, is the most important thing, having a very fine head of 

 the red deer type, with many points. 



As already remarked, the wapiti changes its type of horn when 

 bred through several generations in England (Kent), so that it 

 gradually comes to the red deer type ; and I have in my park several 

 young pure-bred wapiti stags very close to the red deer type. The 

 horns have cups at the top, brow, bay, and tray points, and thus 

 have little except their superior size to distinguish them from red 

 deer heads to the casual observer. 



It may be, therefore, that climate and soil have more to do with 

 variety in horn-formation than the actual species of deer. 



