342 MR. P. L. SCLATER ON CERTAIN SPECIES OF DEER 
geographical distribution cannot be properly worked out without a complete know- 
ledge of the species. This in the present case we are very far from having yet attained, 
most of the public museums of Europe (where only the larger Mammalia can be pre- 
served and studied) being miserably deficient in their series of these animals. But I 
believe I can make some little advance upon what has been hitherto known upon 
this subject. : 
This section of the genus Cervus is confined to the two principal regions of the earth’s 
surface, which I have called the Palearctic and Nearctic regions, and is therefore one of 
a numerous series of natural groups which may be termed “arctopolitan”’. In the 
neotropical region only one species is found, namely the Wapiti (Cervus canadensis*). In 
the palwarctic region there would appear, according to our present state of knowledge, 
to be probably six species. These are :— 
1. Cervus eLapHus, Linn. Of Europe and North-western Asia. The Russian natu- 
ralists Middendorff*, Schrenck‘, and Radde’, all agree in extending the range of Cervus 
elaphus into Amoorland and the extreme east of Siberia. But the species met with in 
the extreme east may be the next. 
2. Cervus xantuopyaus, Alph. Milne-Edwards, Ann. Sc. Nat. 5 ser. Zool. viii. p. 376 ; 
Recherches Hist. Nat. Mamm. tab. xxi. 
Cervus from Pekin, allied to C. elaphus, Leadbeater, P. Z. S. 1861, p. 368. 
The existence of a large Deer of the Elaphine group in the vicinity of Pekin became 
known in 1860, when, on the entry of the allies into the Summer Palace, herds of two 
species of Deer were found grazing in the parks. Heads of the larger animal, obtained 
by Lieut.-Col. Sarel, F.Z.S., were exhibited by Mr. Leadbeater before a meeting of this 
Society in November 1861; but the species was not considered to be certainly distinct 
from C. elaphus. 
Recently M. Fontanier has forwarded a skin of this animal to the Musée d'Histoire 
Naturelle of Paris, and M. Alphonse Milne-Edwards has named it Cervus ranthopygus, 
stating that it differs from C. elaphus in the lengthened form of the head, the greyish 
colour of the fur, and the greater size of the anal disk. M. Alphonse Milne-Edwards 
will, no doubt, give us further particulars of this animal in the ‘ Recherches pour servir 
4 Hist. Nat. des Mammiféres’ now in course of publication, but at present has only 
issued the figure of it. 
As stated above, the geographical limits between this species and C. e/aphus remain to 
be decided, likewise how far it is really distinct from the next species. 
1 dpxros, pars orbis borealis, et modirys, civis. 
2 Hamilton Smith separated the western Wapiti as Cervus occidentalis (Griffith’s A. K 3 iy. 101). But we 
have a fine male of this form in the collection from Oregon (received April 16, 1863), and I cannot see that it 
has any claims to specific distinction. 
3 Sibir. Reise, ii. p. 120. * Amur-reise, Siiug. p, 170. > Reisen im Siid. y. Ost-Sibir., i. p. 284. 
