NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL PARK. 67 
They are sheltered by four houses, the largest of which 
crowns the summit of the hill on the right of Osborn 
Walk as the visitor enters from Fordham. For the visitors’ 
convenience we will make note of the various species about 
in the order of their appearance, and not in zoological se- 
quence. 
The Axis Deer, (Avis avis), is the handsomest of all the 
tropical deer. Indeed, it may even be said to be the only 
species of the tropics possessing both form and pelage which 
are alike pleasing to the eye. In contrast with the many 
beautiful and splendidly colored antelopes of Africa, the 
deer of the tropics, all round the world, are poorly provided 
with those characters which make a handsome animal. 
With the sole exception of the Axis Deer, nearly all the 
other deer of the East Indies have thin, coarse, dull-colored 
hair, their antlers are small, and seldom have more than four 
points. This is equally true of the deer of Mexico, Central 
and South America. Even our own white-tailed deer, so 
lusty and fine in the North, becomes in Florida and Texas so 
dwarfed that it has now been called a subspecies. 
Considering the severe plainness of all the other deer in 
the tropics, it is a little strange that the coat of the Axis 
should be the most beautiful possessed by any deer. But it 
is quite true; and apart from the majesty of the elk, there 
is no more beautiful sight in cervine life than the picture 
offered by a herd of Axis Deer feeding in a sunlit glade 
surrounded by forest. 
This species adapts itself to out-door life in the temperate 
zone with surprising readiness, not even second in that 
respect to the eland. As a matter of course the Axis can not 
withstand the fierce blizzards of midwinter as do the elk 
and other northern deer; but a reasonable degree of care 
in providing it with a dry barn, and shelter from cold winds, 
enables it to live even as far north as northern Germany 
with perfect comfort. In winter our Axis Deer barn is mod- 
erately heated by a stove. 
The Japanese Sika Deer, (Cervus sika typicus), is a small 
representative of a large group of deer species inhabiting 
far-eastern Asia, and known as the Sika Deer group. A 
ridiculous number of forms have been described as species 
and subspecies, of which possibly one-third are entitled to 
stand. Some of those on the Asian mainland, as the Pekin 
Sika Deer, are much larger than the Japanese Sika, and 
