ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY OF THE ALTAI MOUNTAINS. 33 



Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 4tli ser. .1876, vol. xviii. p. 386), was the 

 first to call attention to the resemblance between the Stag of the 

 Thian-shan, which he calls Qervus maral^ and the Wapiti : he divides 

 the Asiatic species into two forms, which he calls — " (a) sibirica,^^ 

 from the Altai, the Tenesei, and the wooded hills of the Sayausk 

 and Transbaikal mountains, and " (b) songarica,'' from the Thian- 

 shan. Mr. Blanford, describing Gervus eusteplianus (Proc. Zool. 

 Soc. 1875, pp. 637-640), has alluded to Severtzoif's meaioir 

 (' Turkestanski Jevotni,' p. 108), which being in Russian he 

 could not follow, and therefore could not say wliether the form 

 described as var. songarica is identical with eusteplianus or 

 not. Now, however, that both he and Mr. Lydekker admit its 

 identity, it seems to nie that the name soongarica having priority 

 should be used, though Mr. Lydekker styles this race Gervus 

 canadensis asiaficus. 



With regard to Severtzoffs var. ^ibirica^ however, it is impossible 

 at present to decide its exact relationship to the others. I am 

 able to exhibit four pairs of horns which have been lately sent 

 by Herr Hageubeck of Hamburg to the Duke of Bedford, which 

 were procured by Herr Dorries in the Chiu<ian uiountaius and 

 from the Sutschau river in Manchuria, which Mr. Lydekker, 

 who has seen them, considers to belong to the race which he calls 

 Gervus canadensis Luekdorfi. This race he regards as more 

 nearly related to the Western Wapiti, from the Pacific coast, 

 Washington, and Vancouver's Island, than to the Thian-shan or 

 Altai race. He had seen no adult male or horns of this form when 

 he published his work, ' The Deer of ail Lauds ; ' and though all 

 these four pairs (evidently those o£ adult stags) are much smaller 

 than any race of the Wapiti with which I am acquainted, they 

 certainly to some extent show the horn character ot the Wapit', 

 rather than that of the lied Deer (tigs. 4 & 5). If it be admitted 

 that they belong to a race of Gervus canadensis^ we have this 

 curious fact in geographical distribution, namely, that the race 

 of the Western American coast more nearly resembles the 

 Eastern Asiatic race than it does the Eocky Mountain race, 

 which latter, on the other hand, has resemblauce to the Altai 

 and Thian-shan race, most widely separated from it in point of 

 distance *. 



* Since this paper was read I have received from Hen- Hagenbeck another 

 liead procured by Dorries in tiie mountains south of Lake Baikal, which 

 probably belongs to the same race as the Altai Deer, fig. 6 (p. 33). 



LINN, JOUEN. — ZOOLOGY, VOL. XXYH. 3 



