THE NATURAL HISTORY OF CHINA 9 



hoofed animals, on the other hand are less plentiful, a fact 

 due doubtless to their value as food. The Chinese are not 

 to be classed amongst the world's best hunters, but by 

 reason of their numbers, and the fact that they never lose 

 an opportunity to turn an honest penny, they soon destroy 

 the big game in any district where such occur and they are 

 allowed to hunt it. At the present time it is only in remote 

 mountainous areas, more or less inaccessible to the outside 

 world, that any of the larger ungulates are tobe found in a wild 

 state, and even these are being assidulously hunted by local 

 natives, who are gradually acquiring modern rifles, and so 

 threatening them with extermination. To this category 

 belong the wapiti, or Asiatic reddeer, several forms of which 

 occur in the country, the wild sheep, the takin, the serow, 

 tli.- aika doer, and the goral. The large deer are hunted for 

 the Bake of their horns when in velvet, the Chinese believing 

 in this commodity as an excellent tonic and rejuvenater. 

 Thus the spotted deer, or sika, have become extremely rare, 

 and are now only to be found in a few isolated areas. The 

 sika deer form an interesting genus that is confined to the 

 ith-eastern pari of the Asiatic land mass and adjacent 

 islands. There are two distinct sub-groups within the genus, 

 one containing the large animals of North China and 

 Manchuria, and the other small animals, typified by the t 

 little Japanese deer. In the extreme south-west of China 



find an Indian form of deer, the sambhur, while in the 

 fangtee Valley occurs the remarkable little river deer 

 Hydropotea inermw), which has no horns, but well de- 

 veloped tusks in the male. Muntjacs, musk, mousedeer, 

 r complete the list of cervine ungulates that occur 

 , n China, the roe being confined to the north, the musk to 

 t},,. north and west, and the others to the central and 



ithem pa] The famous David's deer (Elaphurus 



davidianus), Known to the Chinese as the Mei, or Ssu-yu- 



ing meaning the "four unlikes," has become extinct, at 



least in a wild state. This and the river deer are purely 



CI, the wapiti being European and North 



• an in its affinities, the musk Himalayan, and the 



sika the muntjacs, and the mousedeer oriental. 



Wild swine of the 8U8 scn,fa type are almost universally 

 distributed throughout the country. Antelopes and wild 

 aheep belong to the north, the serows and gorals to the 



hlands where such occur, and the takms to highest 

 mountain ran >tral and West China, The yak occurs 



in a w ,id d the highlands on the Tibetan border, and 



\hr wild a- in Chinese Turkestan. 



