THE PALCEARCTIC FAUNA OF 
NORTHERN AFRICA 
THE BARBARY STAG 
CERVUS ELAPHUS BARBARUS 
Z OOLOGICALLY speaking, the fauna of Africa is almost 
entirely Ethiopian in character, and that of Europe 
Paloearctic; yet in Southern Italy and in Southern Spain, 
which must have been connected with Northern Africa in 
comparatively recent times, speaking geologically, certain 
members of the ^Ethiopian fauna still exist, such as the 
Barbary ape, the genet, the porcupine and the jackal; whilst in Northern 
Africa certain species actually identical with or at least generically allied 
to the existing paloearctic fauna of Europe have succeeded in establishing 
themselves. Amongst these is the Barbary deer, which is still found in 
the mountain forests of Morocco, the East of Algeria and the western 
portions of Tunis. 
If there is any difference at all between the red deer of Northern Africa 
and the red deer found in the South of Spain and in the islands of Sardinia 
and Corsica, it is, at any rate, so slight that the Barbary deer cannot be 
looked upon as anything but a local race of Cervus elaphus , of Central and 
Western Europe. In the Barbary stag the second or bez tine is said to be 
usually wanting, but the absence of the bez tine is not at all uncommon in 
the red deer of Scotland, and is quite common in heads from the South of 
Spain and the Island of Sardinia. Few, if any, English sportsmen have 
stalked and shot the Barbary stag. Living as it does amongst the cork and 
pine forests of the Atlas Mountains, and persecuted as it has been by 
native hunters, it is no doubt very secretive in its habits, and the best time 
of year at which to hunt it would probably be in September during the rut, 
as is the practice in the mountain forests of Austria-Hungary, Asia Minor 
and the Caucasus. As is the case with the mountain stags of Southern Spain, 
the stags of the Atlas mountains must sometimes grow very fine antlers, 
as a pair in the possession of Sir Edmund Loder measure thirty eight and 
seven-eighths inches along the beam. In this specimen the bez tines are 
apparently present, since the circumference between the bez and trez tines 
is given as five and three-eighths inches. 
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