AUGDST, 1902.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



ni 



shaft, or beam, is undiviJetl for a short distance, and then 

 splits in a fork-Uke manner. A peculiarity of the mi-lou 

 deer, and one wherehv it differs from all the numerous 

 species of American deer carrying antlers of the forked 

 type, is that the hind prong of the main fork forms an 

 undivided tine of great length direi-ted backwards. The 

 front |irong, on the other hand, is forked at least once, 

 and has hut little forward inclination till the point of 

 bifurcation is reached. The long donkey-like tail, which 

 attracted the attention of the Abhc David at his first 

 sight of the animal, is particularly well displayed in the 

 photograph. The general colour of the coat is fawm-grey, 

 becoming lighter on the face, rump, inner sides of the 

 limbs, and under-parts. Unlike the majoi-ity of deer, 

 there is but little change in the colour of the coat accord- 

 ing to season. One very curious peculiarity displayed by 

 the stags iu the herd of mi-lou deer at \Voburu Abbey 

 is that they shed and renew their autlers twice a year, 

 instead of once, as in other deer. Whether, however, ibis 

 peculiarity has always been inherent in the species, or 

 whether it is the result of long domestication, is impossible 

 trt say, for the species is quite unknown in a wild state. 

 Indeed it caunot now be ascertained whether this double 

 change of antlers took place among the herds in the Non 

 Hai-tzu, or even in the specimens first brought to Europe. 



The date of the introduction of these deer into the 

 imperial luinting-park is probably very remote, seeing 

 that, as already said, they have never been found wild in 

 any part of Asia by Europeans. It is true that, according 

 to Dr. S. W. Bushell, to whose account reference is again 

 made in the secjuel, a Chinese writer of the latter part of 

 the eighteenth century mentions Kashgaria as the native 

 country of these deer ; but even if that be correct, the 

 species may have been exterminated there centuries ago. 

 Anyway, there is but little hope of its survival in that 

 district at the present day. 



As China became slowly opened up to European 

 enterprise, the difficulty of obtaining specimens of the 

 mi-lou deer gradually decreased, and in August, 1869, a 

 male and female were received at the menagerie of the 

 Zoological Society as a gift from Sir Rutherford Alcock. 

 A second pair were acquired by purchase in 1883, since 

 the death of which the species appears to have been 

 unrepresented in the Society's collection. Meanwhile 

 specimens were from time to time received by various 

 menageries ou the Continent ; and the species has bred at 

 thi' gardens of the Societe d'Acclimatation at Paris and 

 elsewhere. 



The subsequent history of this interesting and remark- 

 able species is extremely sad, no one apparently having 

 had the least idea that it was on the point of extermina- 

 tion until too late. No definite statements are made by 

 the earlier travellers as to the numbers of these deer in 

 the Non Hai-tzu when they first came under the observa- 

 tion of Europeans. Writing, however, in the summer of 

 1898 to the secretary of the Zoological Society, Dr. Bushell 

 stated that he h;id formerly ridden among the herds which 

 swarmed in the imperial park, where they appear to have 

 been reserved for the sport of the Court, and were care- 

 fully protected. Whether, in later years, less care was 

 taken than formerly to see that the park and its sur- 

 rounding wall were in good condition, the account does 

 not state ; but during or about the year 1894 the Hun-ho, 

 which flows through the park, became flooded, and breached 

 the wall in several places Through the gaps thus made 

 all the mi-lou deer escaped, and appear to have be»'n killed 

 and eaten by the peasantry of the surrounding districts, 

 n ho were suffermg at that time from famine. In his letter 

 Dr. Bushell promised to make enquiries ou his return to 

 China if any of the deer had escaped destruction, but as 



nothing more has been heard from him on the subject, it 

 may be presumed that all were slaughtered. 



Assuming, then, that the mi-lou deer does not exist in 

 a wild state in some unexplored part of Kashgaria, or other 

 remote part of Central Asia, it seems only too evident that 

 its sole living representatives are those preserved in Euro- 

 pean collections. By far the greater number of these are 

 now at Woburn Abbey, where they run in the oj)eu park 

 with the other deer. They breed freely, without an undue 

 proportion of males among the fawns ; a very hopeful sign 

 being, that some hinds purchased from Paris, where they 

 were sterile, bred after they were transferred to their new 

 quarters. Some time ago the herd at Woburn numbered 

 over twenty head, and it has probably increased since 

 that date. One point in favour of the prospects of the 

 survival of the Woburn herd is the fact that the species 

 has for centuries been kept in a state of semi-domestication, 

 that is to say, it has lived in an enclosed park without, 

 ajjparently, any infusion of fresh blood. It would, there- 

 fore, seem probable that it will be less likely to suffer 

 from the effects of inbreeding than is the case with 

 animals suddenly transferred from the wild state to 

 captivity. Every care is, of course, taken of these valuable 

 animals, and naturalists will watch with interest the 

 results of the attempt to renew and preserve a decadent 

 and almost exterminated race. 



So far as I am aware, Pere David's mi-lou deer is the 

 only example of a mammalian species used neither as a 

 food-supply or as a beast of burden which has been pre- 

 served from extermination in a semi-domesticated state. 



Readers of this article who may be desirous of seeing 

 the mi-lou deer, will find a handsome stag, with fully 

 developed antlers, exhibited in the Natural History 

 Museum, where there is also the mounted head of a 

 female — both the gift of the Duke and Duchess of Bed- 

 ford. Unfortunately, the taxidermist to whom the task 

 of mounting the stag was confided (and taxidermists are 

 the despair of naturalists, whose name they are prone to 

 appropriate !) took for his model a red deer instead of 

 photographs like the one here reproduced. Consequently, 

 instead of having the slouching, donkey-like carriage so 

 essentially characteristic of the species, the Museum 

 specimen is represented with its head elevated, after the 

 fashion of Landseer's picture " The Monarch of the 

 Glen." 



As already mentioned, the mi-lou deer, which is the 

 sole representative of its kind, has no near relatives in the 

 Old World. In spite of a certain not very imjjortant 

 difference in the structure of the bones of the fore-foot, it 

 appears, however, to be a not very distant cousin of the 

 typical American deer, that is to say, the numerous species 

 other than the elk, the wapiti, aud the reindeer, which 

 are really Old World forms, whose entrance into America 

 is probably a comparatively recent event. Probably lioth 

 the mi-lou and the American deer are the descendants of 

 an extinct group, with antlers of the same general type, 

 whi(;h flourished iu Europe during the later portion of 

 the Tertiary epoch. The greater the pity that such an 

 ancient and remarkable type as the former should be on 

 tlie point of extermination ! 



VEGETABLE MIMICRY AND 

 HOMOMORFHISM.-IV. 



By Rev. Alex. S. Wilson, m.a., b.sc. 



The Fungi are an exceedingly numerous class, exhibiting 

 extraordinary diversity of shape and coloui-ing ; many 

 remarkable resemblances are observed among them, but 

 the life-history in several groups is imperfectly known 



