NATURALIST IN INDIA. 187 



layas. What may be the difference between them and the 

 red-deer (C elaphvi) I cannot say. The red-deer of the 

 Altai ranges,* and of Amoorland, are said to be identical, 

 and differ only from the European animal in being a little 

 larger. That is not to be wondered at, especially with refer- 

 ence to the Scottish red-deer, which is well known to have 

 been steadily deteriorating as cultivation has intruded on its 

 haunts ; neither in size nor in the development of the horn is the 

 animal now what it once was ; but the noble heads preserved in 

 the mansions of the aristocracy, or found in bogs or superficial 

 deposits, show that individuals were equal in size to any met 

 with in the present day in Central and Northern Asia. Not only 

 has the curtailing of its freedom been one of the chief causes 

 of the deterioration of the red-deer, but by breeding always 

 from the same stock, and the destruction of adult harts, leaving 

 the propagation of the species entirely to immature animals, 

 a feebler race has been the result, and doubtless, unless 

 measures are taken to counteract these evils, the red-deer will 

 become extinct ; for what greater modifiers of animal exist- 

 ence are there than those which change habits or curtail 

 m,tural tendencies ? With all the attention bestowed on the 

 red-deer, and the vast amount of pleasure and occupation it 

 has afforded man for ages, it seems curious that no one has 

 attempted to trace its relations and examine fully into its dis- 

 tribution. This deer appears to have been co-existent with 

 man's earliest history, for among the peat morasses and 

 caverns of Europe we find abundant remains of the elk, 

 rein, and red deers, all of which roamed at one time in 

 vast herds over the British isles ; and as primeval history re- 

 cords man's doings, we find him hourly employed in the great 



* See Atkinson's Travels in the Begions of the Upper and Lower Armor ; 

 and the Natural History Review for 1861. 



