Red Deer 79 



and 2, where they are the largest members of the groups. I have no 

 information as to the summer colouring of Carpathian examples. 



In its generally simpler antlers this race apparently forms a partial 

 transition from the typical race in the direction of the three under-mentioned 

 Asiatic species ; and it is noteworthy that examples in which these 

 appendages attain unusual complexity are recorded from the Carpathians and 

 Caucasus, where this race must impinge very closely on the habitat of the 

 typical red deer, with which it not improbably intergrades. The name 

 " maral " being the Persian equivalent for deer in general, it is applied 

 throughout a great portion of Asia to all the larger members of the genus. 

 Hence much confusion as to what constitutes the true maral in the zoological 

 sense of the word, the Altai wapiti being commonly designated by this term. 



Distribution. — The typical locality of this race of the red deer is the 

 Caspian provinces of Northern Persia, where it is the only representative of 

 the present group of the genus, as it also is in the Crimea and probably in 

 Asia Minor. Thence the range extends into Transcaucasia, the Caucasus, 

 probably Circassia, and the Galician Carpathians. With regard to the 

 Caucasus, Dr. Satunin speaks of the red deer as being common in many parts 

 of that range and in Transcaucasia, but doubts if the " maral" occurs there, 

 although he rightly says that the latter is the only stag in the Crimea. 

 What distinction he finds between the Crimean and Caucasian deer I have 

 no means of knowing, but both must apparently be referred to the present 

 race, although the typical race may extend into the Northern Caucasus. 

 The Carpathian deer are referred to the present race in Mr. Rowland 

 Ward's book, and Mr. Buxton's specimens indicate the apparent correctness 

 of this reference. His specimens, as already mentioned, are from the 

 Galician or Eastern Carpathians, and information is urgently needed as to 

 how far we have to travel westward along the range before entering the 

 habitat of the typical red deer. Mr. Ward uses the name of Carpathian 

 deer for the present animal, but this is obviously inadvisable, as Persia is its 

 typical habitat, and in the Carpathians we may expect to find it inter- 

 grading with the western race. Information is also required with regard 

 to the red deer of Turkey. 



Some years ago Dr. A. Nehring 1 suggested that the large red deer 

 antlers from the Plistocene deposits of Europe belonged to the maral, and it 



1 SB. Ges. Nat. Berlin, 1887, p. 67. 



