DEER 



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Afghanistan, and the valley of the upper Indus are likewise semi-deserts, and 

 the lower part of the valley of the Indus, Baluchistan, part of Persia, and that 

 portion of Arabia north of 20° N. latitude are occupied by real desert. On the 

 other hand, the Asiatic shores of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea are clothed 

 with hard-leaved forests. 



Several of the mammals of south-western Asia are the same as 

 those of Europe, among the hoofed group being the eastern race of 

 the red deer, whose range extends from Asia Minor into northern Persia, where the 

 animal becomes very dark-coloured on the under-parts. The fallow deer, as a 

 member of the Mediterranean fauna, is indigenous to Asia Minor, where it is found 

 principally in the Taurus. The mountains of Luristan, between Mesopotamia and 



Deer. 





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PERSIAN IBEX. 



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Persia, are the home of the Persian fallow deer (Cervus mesopotamicus), distin- 

 guished from the common fallow-deer by the form of the antlers, in which the 

 trez-tine is closer to the brow-tine and the latter smaller than in the common 

 fallow deer, while the palmation begins below, instead of above the middle of the 

 beam. In other respects the Persian fallow deer, which may perhaps be spotted 

 the whole year round, is closely related to the ordinary species. The roebuck of 

 south-western Asia, which is spread over Caucasia, Armenia, and Asia Minor as 

 far as Palestine on one side and Persia on the other, is so little different from the 

 European animal that it may be regarded as specifically identical, 

 ibex and wild Although there are no wild representatives of the ox tribe in 



Goats. th e area under consideration, there are several forms of wild goat. 

 Among these is the Arabian race of the African ibex (Capra nubiana sinaitica), 



