S i Elaphine Group 



evidence of the next specimen, it would seem that the figure was taken just 

 before the complete replacement of the summer by the winter coat, at 

 which time the caudal disk, makes its first appearance, apparently through 

 hiding of the original colour. The tail is represented as very long. The 

 left antler has three, and the right four tines ; the brow-tine in the latter 

 being very long and the bez very short. 



The second definitely known example is a young male from near Pekin, 

 received at Woburn Abbey in the summer of 1896, and provisionally 

 discribed as a distinct species under the name of C. bedfordianus. The 

 antlers had four tines, with a distinct excess of the brow- over the bez-tine 

 in length. At that time the pelage was short, smooth, and glossy, and of a 

 bright foxy red colour, without the slightest trace of a light disk on the 

 buttocks round the short tail. There was no throat-mane. By the middle 

 of September, the summer coat was being replaced by the winter one. The 

 most extraordinary change was the development of a large yellowish disk 

 on the buttocks, including all the tail. This disk was clearly produced by a 

 change in the colour of the hairs of the summer coat ; but it appeared to 

 be also developing in the winter coat. The general colour of the latter 

 seemed to be bluish gray, or brown, with a tendency to fawn on the neck. 

 A distinct fringe had also developed on the throat. This was very thin, 

 with bands of black, and white tips to the hairs : thus being quite different 

 from the thick, uniformly-coloured fringe of the wapiti. Still later, the 

 general colour of the coat became more wapiti-like, and the caudal disk 

 more distinct and brighter. By the middle of June 1897 t ^ ie arnma l had 

 again assumed its summer pelage, which was precisely similar to that of the 

 previous year, thus proving that the absence of the light caudal disk was 

 not a feature due to immaturity. The new antlers had acquired five points, 

 and were remarkable for the excessive proportionate length of the brow-tine, 

 which was nearly a foot long, whereas the bez-tine was not more than one- 

 third the length. In the plate the animal is represented bearing these third 

 antlers. In general form the antlers come nearest to those of the Caspian 

 variety of the red deer. The animal, after a long period of ill-health, died 

 in October 1897, an( ^ ' ts head is now mounted in the British Museum. 



The large brow- and small bez-tine of the antlers appear sufficient to 

 justify the identification of the specimen in question with C. xanthopygus, 

 in spite of the circumstance that the type of the latter is depicted with a 



