THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
referred by Mr Lydekker to the maral, while the other agreed in general 
characteristics with the ordinary western red deer, though possibly 
representing a distinct race. 
The term “ maral,” it should be noted, is restricted to the eastern race 
of red deer, though applied indiscriminately by the Persian and Turki 
tribes of Asia to large deer of all kinds. 
Mr Cameron wrote in 1906 that he considered there were no valid 
reasons for distinguishing the stag of Eastern Europe from the western 
red deer. “ There has been an uninterrupted distributional movement 
from east to west, the Caucasian and Asia Minor stag representing most 
nearly the ancestral and aboriginal form which in former times over- 
spread Europe to the Atlantic seaboard, and which has since become 
so variously modified by enforced segregation amidst very varied con- 
ditions of life.” It is indeed impossible to attempt a survey of the Cervidos 
of Asia without encroaching to some extent on Europe. The late Gustav 
Radde could draw no definite line of distinction between the two extreme 
antler forms of the Caucasus, C. elaphus and C. elaphus maral , which live 
in close proximity to each other. It is not surprising to find that inter- 
mediate transition forms occur. Indeed, the variation in Caucasian 
antlers is immense. Incidentally it may be mentioned that Carpathian 
antlers show a stronger tendency to form a cup than do those from the 
former locality. The body measurements of a fully adult Carpathian 
or Caucasian stag approximate very closely to those of the North 
American wapiti and “ concur with the fossil remains of the British 
and German Pleistocene stag.” The average clean weight of adult 
stags in the Kuban Caucasus is from 35 st. to 45 st. Very heavy stags 
are sometimes killed in Asia Minor, and in the “Field,” June 29, 1895, 
Mr Edward Gilbertson recorded a stag from Mount Olympus of the 
extraordinary total dead weight of nearly 75 st. The clean weight would 
have been about 56 st. 
Another stag, a seventeen-pointer, killed by this gentleman, scaled a 
little over 50 st. 
“ But for the fact that zoologists have so constantly endeavoured to 
differentiate a large eastern and a small western race of red deer in 
Europe it would be altogether superfluous to point out that mere size 
and weight can afford absolutely no grounds for the racial distinction 
of European stags. . . . Whether we regard the subject historically or 
geographically, it seems clear enough that existing differences in size 
196 
