Mandarin Sika 



121 



without ceasing an hour at a time. Most of the specimens captured are 

 taken after deep falls of snow ; and the antlers, like those of the Manchurian 

 wapiti, find a ready sale in China for medicinal purposes. 



4. The Mandarin Sica — Cervus mandarinus 



Cervus mandarinus, Milne-Edwards, Rech. Mamm. p. 184 (1871) ; 

 Brooke, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1878, p. 968 ; Lydekker, ibid. 1897, P- 44- 



(?) Cervus axis, Swinhoe, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1864, p. 169, nec Erxleben. 

 (?) Cervus mantschuricus major, Noack, Humboldt, vol. viii. p. 5, fig. 4 



(1889). 



Characters. — This doubtful species is definitely known by the type 

 specimen preserved in the Museum at Paris, and from the figure of which 

 the following characters are taken. Size very large. Pelage spotted at all 

 seasons, and apparently very long and shaggy in winter. Colour redder 

 than in the preceding species, with the spots abundant in the winter pelage, 

 when the neck and limbs are similar in tint to the ground-colour of the 

 body ; under-parts dark ; metatarsal tuft apparently similar in colour to the 

 rest of the leg ; tail comparatively long, mainly reddish, with but little 

 white. In his original description Professor Milne-Edwards remarks that this 

 deer is distinguished from C. manchuricus by the more profuse spotting of 

 the summer coat, and the retention of a large, although somewhat smaller, 

 number of distinct spots in the winter dress on the body — the ground- 

 colour of the latter being dark chestnut-brown, and the neck and under-parts 

 also brown ; while there is a very thick frill of long hairs on the throat. 

 It is also mentioned that the colour of the summer coat is much brighter 

 than in C. manchuricus. These observations are fully borne out by the two 

 plates accompanying the memoir, which illustrate the type specimen at both 

 seasons. Sir Victor Brooke gives mandarinus as a synonym of manchuricus, 

 without a word as to the persistence of the spotting in winter. And the 

 influence of one so well known as an authority on the group has led to 

 C. mandarinus being ignored by subsequent writers. 



In a letter published in the Proc. Zool. Soc. for 1868 Mr. Swinhoe wrote 

 as follows : — " In the gardens of Messrs. Jardine, Matheson, and Co., in 

 Hong-Kong, I saw several bucks and does of C. sica and C. taevanus, as also 

 of C. axis in winter dress. The bucks of the two former had manes about 



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