THE DEER OF THE PEKING PARKS 273 
seen them at one season may well be excused for not 
recognising them at the other. In the summer coat, as 
shown in the plate, they are of a brilliant reddish chest- 
nut, profusely spotted with white; in winter, on the other 
hand, when the coat of the old stags becomes very long 
and shaggy, they are uniformly umber-brown, although 
traces of spots may persist in the younger stags and 
hinds. The old stags are but little inferior in size to red- 
deer, with which species certain hinds from the Summer 
Palace were indeed identified by Mr. Swinhoe, who quite 
failed to recognise that they were really the adult form 
of his “ garden-deer.” 
In England the Peking deer seems to thrive as well 
as red or fallow deer, and in time we may hope to see it 
established in many of our parks. 
But the Yuangming Yuan was not the only park where 
deer were kept by the Chinese Emperors. To the south 
of Peking lies a park known as the Non Hai-tzu (or 
Nanhai-tze), far exceeding in extent the Yuangming Yuan, 
the brick wall by which it is enclosed being forty-five 
miles in circuit. This imperial hunting-park, as it is 
commonly called by Englishmen, is separated from the 
city by a plain, which is marshy in places, and gives rise 
to a river flowing in part of its course through the park 
itself. The whole tract is thickly forested, but villages and 
military posts are dotted here and there in the clearings. 
The park was in former days strictly guarded, and no 
Europeans were allowed entrance, although there are 
reports that by the aid of disguises a few entered from 
time to time. According to rumour the park was the 
home of large herds of deer of various kinds, as well as 
of flocks of the Mongolian gazelle, or yellow sheep, as it 
is called by the Chinese. 
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