DED 
to the existing fallow deer; were it living 
no deer known could compare with it for 
majesty of appearance. 
wa 
A great contrast to the huge unwieldy moose 
i is the neat little Sika stag, 
a ane: e . . . . . 
Sewer which is shown in his winter 
coat of uniform dark sepia- 
brown; in summer he is chestnut with white 
spots, the seasonal colour-change present 1m so 
many deer beimg unusually well-marked in 
this species. When the stag’s antlers are 
newly-grown and still in the velvet they have 
a remarkable colour, being bright chestnut-red 
with black tips, and 
look very handsome. 
Although often 
not so big as the 
fallow deer, the sika 
stag 1s a compact 
little fellow, and 
looks not unlike a 
miniature of the red 
deer; his antlers also 
are of a somewhat 
similar type, but do 
not carry so many 
points, four being 
the usual number. 
The sika was long 
ago introduced into 
British parks, and 
does extremely well 
there ; indeed the 
animals breed 
freely in their con- 
fined quarters at the Zoological Gardens. In 
parks they sometimes interbreed with the 
red deer, a somewhat remarkable fact when 
their great distinctness in size and other 
characters is considered. 
There is one drawback to the sika as a park 
animal, and that is his savage disposition, 1n 
which he resembles the red deer and differs 
completely from the gentle fallow deer. For 
this reason it is not advisable to encourage 
sika deer to become tame, as a tame deer, if of 
a savage race, 1s sure sooner or later to abuse 
his famiharity with man, with very serious re- 
sults. Sika deer come from Japan and North- 
East Asia, the maimland form being larger. 
Photograph by W.P. Dando, I'.Z.S. 
SAMBAR STAG, 
Animal Life 
THIS species (Cervus tdéevanus), which is 
confined to the mountains of 
Formosa, is a near ally of 
the Sika, but undergoes little 
colour-change according to season, the coat 
being always spotted and more or less 
reddish in colour. 
Formosan 
Deer. 
Ie 
THE powerful but somewhat clumsy-looking 
deer (Cervus wnricolor) which 
bears this title is the most 
widely - distributed species in 
South - Hastern Asia, where it becomes 
divided into numerous sub-species. The 
characteristic points 
of Sambar are the 
stout antlers with 
only two terminal 
tines and a brow- 
tine, the large ears 
and longish bushy 
tail, and the uniform 
brown colour; even 
the young are not 
usually spotted im 
India, though 
further east this is 
not the case. Some 
ot the insular forms 
of the sambar are 
very undersized, an 
insular habitat tend- 
ing to dwarf deer in 
many cases. Thus 
the smaller size of 
the Japanese race of 
the sika has been alluded to above, and the 
smallest forms of the red deer occur in the 
Hebrides and Corsica. Just as the wapiti 
is miscalled elk in America, so 1s the sambar 
in Ceylon, though in this case the error is 
certainly less excusable. At the same time 
the sambar is a fine big beast when at its 
best, and quite the largest of tropical deer. 
The antlers also, if not so fine as those of 
the red deer and wapiti in respect of length 
and number of points, have nevertheless a 
erandeur of their own in the great thickness 
of the beam and the ruggedness of its 
surface. They are less apt to throw off 
“sports” than those of some other deer, 
The 
Sambar. 
