1896.] SSER rnOM NOilTHllRN CHINA. &31 



the buttocks surrounding the tail. The tail is remarkable for its 

 extreme shorf?ness. There was no fringe of long hair on the throat, 

 but this may have been due to immaturity or to season. In their 

 present state of development, no conclusions can be drawn from, 

 the antlers. Something over two years may be given as the 

 probable age of the animal. 



Such was the coloration of the specimen when I first saw it at 

 the beginning of August (see Plate XLVIII.). When I again 

 visited Woburn in the middle of September, the summer coat was 

 being replaced by the winter one. The most extraordiuary change 

 was the development of a large yellowish disk on the buttocks, 

 including all the tail. This disk was clearly produced by a change 

 iu the colour of the hairs of the summer coat ; but it appeared 

 to be also developing in the winter coat. The general colour of 

 the latter seemed to be bluish grey, or brown, with a tendency to 

 fawn on the neck. A distinct fringe had also developed on the 

 throat. This was very thin, with bands of black, and white tips 

 to the hairs : thus being quite different to the thick, uniformly- 

 coloured fringe of the Wapiti and of the type of C. lueJidorfi. 

 Still later, the general colour of the coat became more Wapiti-like, 

 and the caudal disk more distinct and brighter (see Plate XLIX.). 



From C xanthopygus the Woburu deer appears sufficiently dis- 

 tinguished by the shortness of the tail ' ; while there is no evidence 

 that the former is ever without a caudal disk, or that the summer 

 and winter coats are so widely different. Still, so far as I am 

 aware, that form is only definitely known by the type specimen. 



Apparently, the species to which the deer under consideration 

 approximates rnost closely is C. luehdorfi, although it is very 

 difficult to believe that it is identical. The type specimens of 

 Cervits lueJulorfi, which comprised two pairs, were obtained from 

 Transbaikalia, and v\'ere probably brought from the Bureatish 

 Steppe of Northern Manchuria by nomads. The original descrip- 

 tion^ runs as follows: — "The Isubra Deer," as it is called, "is 

 intermediate in height between the European Eed Deer (C. elaphus) 

 and the North-American Wapiti (C. canadensis). In size it is 

 closer to the former, in the shape of the antlers to the latter. Its 

 hair is in winter brownish grey, in summer light brown ; the throat 

 has a small whitish median streak ; the under-lip is whitish, with 

 three black spots, one small one in the middle, and two larger 

 ones on each side. The strong mane is like that of the Wapiti — 

 in colour dark chestnut-brown, in places almost black ; in summer 

 it disappears almost completely. The eye is smaller than in the 

 Eed Deer. The tail is inuch shorter than either the Eed Deer or 

 the Wapiti ; in the male it is only two-thirds of the absolute length 

 of that of the lied Deer ; relatively it is much shorter, as the 



' I assume that Milne-Edwards's plate is correct in this particular. If it 

 be incorrect, and the present specimen turn out to belong to C. xanthopygus, 

 that species will be much more distinct from the Eed Deer than has hitherto 

 been supposed. 



» H. Bolau, Abh. Ver. Hamburg, vol. vii. p. 33, pi. iv. (1880). 



