CHINA 
The Pekin sika or Dybowski’s deer ( Cervus [sica\ hortulorum) is a 
very handsome animal, averaging about 45 inches at the shoulder. The 
species was named by Swinhoe from an immature buck and doe taken 
at the sack of the Summer Palace at Pekin in 1860. Subsequently it was 
obtained in a wild state in the Ussuri district of N.E. Manchuria. The 
antlers are very large, rugose and less flattened than in the common sika. 
In summer the general body colour is a chocolate brown. In winter the 
coat becomes long and shaggy, especially on the neck, and at this season 
the hinds are more brightly coloured than the stags and retain distinct 
spots. The tip of the tail is apparently white. 
According to Herr Dorries the species is abundant in the neighbourhood 
of Vladivostok. It occurs from Poussiet Bay inland and northward to the 
Hanka Lake, and ranges from here eastwards towards the coast of the 
Olga Bay. Its favourite haunts are mountains with deciduous woods and 
open places. It avoids pine forests and lives in herds of from five to thirty. 
It loses its horns in the beginning of May, and the new ones are already 
clean by the end of June. The rut takes place at the end of September, 
one or two calves being born at the end of May. These are reddish yellow 
in colour with white spots. 
The Manchurian sika (C. hortulorum typicus) differs slightly from the above. 
There is no dark line down the back and the animal is slightly smaller. 
Kopsch’s deer (C. hortulorum kopschi ; native name, Yung-loo) is a form of 
the sika, found in the province of Anwhei. Commander Hon. R. O. 
Bridge man tells me he spent the greater part of two years trying to obtain 
a specimen in the Feng-huan-shan and Wei-yao-shan ranges. Major 
M ’Neill also hunted them without success, though Europeans are said to 
have killed them. They inhabit rough, stony bush-clad hills about 4,000 
feet high, and always keep in the densest cover. Commander Bridge man, 
writes: “ The stags I saw generally had eight points, but I saw certainly 
one with fourteen.” This, of course, is most unusual in a sika. I have seen 
sika horns hanging up in shops in the border towns of Kansu, though never 
encountering the animal itself. I am confident that the discovery of a race 
of sika in Kansu is only a question of time. 
An old hunter described to me a variety of deer, smaller than wapiti 
and larger than roe, spotted in summer, reddish on the sides and dark on 
the back, found in this province. They become much darker in the winter 
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