THE DEER OF ASIA 
further simplified the reduction of species. The result of his researches 
he embodied in a paper read before the Fourth International Zoological 
Congress held at Cambridge, August 23-27, 1898, which is one of the 
most important contributions to the subject. 
In order to facilitate reference I have adopted the scientific names 
employed in Rowland Ward’s “ Records of Big Game,” though 
they cannot be regarded as altogether satisfactory. The casual reader 
may deny that there is anything in a name. Indeed, so long as the same 
name is universally employed to designate any object of whatever kind, 
it may be argued that the name itself is of no importance. At the 
same time it seems absurd to call so essentially Asiatic an animal as 
the large deer of Central Asia Cervus canadensis songaricus or asiaticus. 
Scientists may argue that retention of the term denoting that the species 
was first recognized in America is essential; the ordinary sportsman, on 
common-sense grounds, might very well argue that it is absurd. De 
Pousargues points out that Severtzoff himself, who proposed the combina- 
tion, recognized its unsuitability and suggested C. wapiti as an alternative, 
and such a suggestion has much to recommend it. 
The following chapter is based largely on the researches of Mr Allan 
Gordon Cameron, to whom I am greatly indebted for much valuable 
assistance. Mr Cameron’s well-known articles on the distribution of 
deer, which appeared in the “ Field ” (1901-4), were written before the 
author had become acquainted with Fr. Th. Koppen’s “ Das Fehlen das 
Eich-hornchens und das vorhandensein des Rehs und des Edelhirsches in 
der Krim,” published in 1883 in the St Petersburg journal, “Beitrage 
surkenntniss des Russischen Reiches u;id der Aupensen den Lander 
Aseius.” Koppen’s essay practically anticipated Mr Cameron’s views, 
though he made a mistake in deriving all the typical stags from one exist- 
ing species, viz. the Tian Shan wapiti. It seems much more probable 
that the wapiti and red deer groups are divergent branches of a main 
stock which became differentiated in Pleistocene times, and before con- 
sidering their present status it is necessary to trace the steps by which it 
has been evolved. Having done this I propose to enumerate the different 
varieties of Asiatic deer, their distribution and characteristics, with some 
notes on the type of country they inhabit and the usual methods of hunting 
them. 
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