Thorold's Deer 93 



by Col. H. M. Prezewalski, and named C. albirostris, and since this name 

 is accompanied by a brief description, in Russian, and also by photographs 

 clearly showing the characteristic white muzzle, it is entitled to supersede 

 the one given by Mr. Blanford. 



With regard to the antler described by Hodgson under the name of C. 

 nariyanus, which Mr. Blanford considers may have belonged to a young 

 individual of the present species, that writer's own words may be quoted. 

 "This horn," he writes, "was said to have been brought from Ladak, it 

 was 34 inches in length, and had four points, the two lower being more 

 than 4 inches apart, so that there was no bez-tine. Judging by the figure, 

 the horn was more massive than would be expected in a young specimen 

 of Thorold's stag. Mr. Hodgson remarked that the Bhotiahs who brought 

 this horn say it belonged to a very young animal, and that the species, 

 which is proper to Gnari, in Western Tibet, is larger than the shou. The 

 stag obtained by Dr. Thorold is considerably smaller than the shou ; there 

 is, so far as is known, no stag in Western Tibet, C. cashmirianus being 

 limited to the Kashmir valley, at all events to the north and east of its 

 range, and, as is well known, young examples of C. elaphus, and I believe 

 of the wapiti also, frequently want the bez-tine ; so that it is by no means 

 impossible the Ladak horn may have belonged to a young C. cashmirianus 

 from Kashmir, to C. yarkandensis from Eastern Turkestan, or even to C. 

 eustephanus (C. canadensis, var.) from the Thian Shan, Ladak being connected 

 with all those regions by trade routes. The Bhotiah story was probably 

 pure fiction. 



" There is, moreover, one very strong reason for not using the name 

 nariyanus for the present animal, even if, as is highly probable, it was the 

 species that furnished the horn described and figured by Hodgson. The 

 name was taken from Nari, the western (or rather perhaps the south- 

 western) province of Tibet, often called Gnari or Nari-Khorsum, a tract, as 

 represented on maps, of no great breadth from north to south, but extending 

 along the north of the Himalayas from the western extremity of Tibet 

 proper, near Rudok, and between long. 8o° and 85 E. This region, part 

 of which is known as Hundes, is on the frontier of our own territory, and 

 has been visited at several points by British sportsmen. If any stag 

 inhabited the region, it is incredible that nothing should have been heard 

 of it ; moreover, the whole of the upper valleys of the Sutlej and Yarot- 



