8o Elaphine Group 



seems not improbable that the large fragments from Kent's Cavern, near 

 Torquay, figured by the late Sir R. Owen under the name of Strongyloceros 

 spe/aus, mav be referable to the same race. At a later date, however, 

 Dr. Hans Pohlig 1 identified the latter form with Kaup's C. prim/gen/us, which 

 he regarded as indicating a race more nearly allied to the typical red deer. 

 At the same time he described and figured certain antlers from the Middle 

 Plistocene deposits of Thuringia, under the name of C. claphus antiqui. One 

 of the specimens figured in plate xxv of his memoir shows the short brow- 

 tine and simple crown so frequently found in the maral, with which race 

 I have little hesitation in identifying the extinct form. If the C. prim/genius 

 of Kaup be likewise identical, that name must supersede C. maral. The 

 Plistocene red deer being of the maral type, the highly specialised antlers 

 of the typical red deer are evidently a late western development which did 

 not appear till about the date of the fen-deposits. 



Habits. — Sir Victor Brooke writes that a pair of maral "which lived in 

 one of my parks for some years, kept entirely apart from the red deer 

 inhabiting the same park. They bred together ; and during the rutting- 

 season the two species never showed the faintest desire to cross. This 

 was the more remarkable, as the old stag maral, though considerably 

 larger in size, lived in great fear of the red deer stags, which during 

 that season roamed incessantly through the park in search of hinds, 

 but at all times treated the female maral with sovereign disdain, 

 although at any time they could have taken possession of her had they 

 so desired." 



The late Sir O. B. St. John, as quoted in Mr. Blanford's Zoology and 

 Geology of Persia, wrote as follows : — "The maral is very numerous in the 

 forests of the Caspian provinces, but does not occur elsewhere [in Persia]. 

 It is often brought alive to Tehran, and, before the famine, the Shah's 

 zoological gardens contained seven or eight specimens, which died of 

 starvation or were killed and eaten by the keepers." The roar of the stags 

 in the Woburn herd, although not quite like that of the European race, 

 has no wapiti element in its composition. 



The following dimensions of antlers of this form are taken from Mr. 

 Rowland Ward's book : — 



1 Palaontographica, vol. xxxix. p. 246 (1892). The recent Siberian skull figured on p. 254 as that 

 of a maral belongs to one of the Asiatic wapitis. 



