112 
Forest and Stream 
THE BIG GAME OF NORTH CHINA 
A COMPREHENSIVE DESCRIPTION OF AN UNSPOILED GAME REGION 
TOWARD WHICH OUR SPORTSMEN ARE TURNING — PART TWO 
By ARTHUR DE CARLE SOWERBY 
N 'EXT in size to the spotted deer 
comes the well - known and 
charming little roedeer, an ani¬ 
mal beloved by many, since by 
its universal distribution it gives many 
sportsmen the only chance they have 
of indulging in that finest of sports, 
deer stalking. The roedeer is unknown 
in America, but ranges in the Old 
World from the British Isles and Spain 
in the West to Eastern Siberia in 
the East. Here its range, following its 
probable original line of dispersal, 
swings south through Manchuria, and 
west through North China to Kansu on 
the Tibetan border. The various species 
of roedeer are all characterized by their 
small, three-pronged horns, and the prac¬ 
tical absence of a tail, the white croup- 
disc being very conspicuous. Two forms 
come within our area, namely, Capre- 
olus bedfordi, Thos., of Chihli, Shansi, 
and Shensi, and C. mclanotus, Miller, of 
Kansu. The latter is distinguishable on 
account of the black outer surface of the 
ear, at least in the summer pelt. Roe¬ 
deer seldom' scale more than 60 lbs. in 
pointed tusks, which protrude down¬ 
ward from the upper jaw. Considerably 
smaller than the roe, the musk weighs 
about 20 lbs., possibly a bit more. It is 
of a much darker color, being brown or 
grayish-brown, with some light markings 
on the sides of the neck and throat. Its 
■ini 
For fourteen years the author of this 
paper visited and hunted in nearly 
all the areas where big game is to 
be found in North China and made 
a voluminous report on the distribu¬ 
tion and habits of all species that 
occur in that country for the United 
States National Museum. 
lillilililill 
weight. The record North China roe¬ 
deer horns are those of an animal shot 
in Northwest Shansi by Lieut. Atkinson 
1913. These measured 171-2 inches 
in 
in length, and were very thick and 
stout. This measurement falls only one 
inch short of the 
chief attraction to the hunter is the 
presence in the male of a sort of pouch 
on the abdomen, filled with the valuable 
substance, musk, which gives the little 
deer its name, and forms the basis of 
most of our perfumes. The world’s 
supply of musk is mainly derived from 
this animal, and in consequence it is 
greatly persecuted, and runs considerable 
danger of becoming extinct. It occurs 
only in forested and hilly or mountain¬ 
world’s record, 
namely that of a 
buck killed in the 
T h i a n Shan in 
Western Mongolia. 
The horns are in 
velvet during the 
or David's deer (Elaphurus davidianus), 
called by the Chinese Ssu-pn-hsiang, or 
“the four unlikes,” by which they mean 
to suggest that it is like a horse, yet 
unlike, like a deer, yet unlike, like an 
ox, yet unlike, and like a goat, yet un¬ 
like. The well-known naturalist Pere 
Armand David first discovered this 
peculiar animal while looking over the 
walls of the Imperial Hunting Park at 
Nan Hai-tzu, south of Peking, where the 
Manchu Emperors kept many different 
kinds of deer and other animals of the 
chase. In 1900 this park was broken 
open by the Allied troops, and most of 
the game destroyed. A certain number 
of the elaphurs were captured and found 
their way to England, where the sole 
remaining survivors of the species are 
to be found in the Duke of Bedford’s 
park at Woburn. This deer differs from 
all others in that the main axis of each 
antler runs straight up, the tines branch¬ 
ing off backwards instead of forwards. 
In color it is a buff-yellow; its tail is 
long and has a tuft like that of the cow’s 
at the end. The hoofs are large and 
pointed. It is a large animal almost 
equaling the Chinese wapitis in size. 
This deer has never been known to 
naturalists in a wild state, though it is 
obviously some form of swamp inhabit¬ 
ing deer, and as such probably occupied 
the Chihli plains 
the rutting 
Though 
all 
season being in 
the summer. The 
young are born in 
the summer, usual¬ 
ly two at a time. 
found in 
forested and 
wooded areas the 
roedeer occurs 
also in compara¬ 
tively barren 
m o u n t a i n s and 
hilly regions. It 
has the habit of 
barking at intrud¬ 
ers, or when it is 
alarmed in any 
way. It occurs in small herds of from 
three to six, seldom alone. 
The smallest North China deer is the 
muskdeer, the form occurring in Shansi 
and Chihli probably belonging to the 
species Moschus sibiricus, L. of Siberia 
and Manchuria, and that of Shensi and 
Kansu to the Tibetan border form, M. 
sifanicus. Hornless, the muskdeer is 
armed in the male with two long and 
before they came 
under cultivation. 
Heads of wild sheep shot in Shansi by Messrs. Brodie and Schroder 
ous areas, where it lies close, keeping to 
the rocky ridges where cover is most 
dense. The Chinese hunt it by driving, 
or capture it with cunningly devised 
traps and snares. 
Mention should here be made of a 
large deer that used to inhabit some part 
of North China—exactly where is not 
known,—but which is now extinct in the 
wild state. This is the famous elaphure, 
W HAT by many 
is considered 
to be the finest of 
the big game ani¬ 
mals in the region 
under discussion is 
the wild-sheep, for¬ 
merly known as 
Ovis jubata, Peters, 
but recently re¬ 
named Ovis comosa 
by Mr. Ned Hollis¬ 
ter, owing to the 
fact that the name 
jubata was preoc¬ 
cupied by a domes¬ 
tic sheep. Belong¬ 
ing to the Ovis am- 
mon group of wild- 
sheep, and closely 
resembling the true 
ammon of North¬ 
ern Mongolia both in appearance and 
size, this sheep is distinguished by the 
presence of a distinct mane, extend¬ 
ing from the posterior base of the mas¬ 
sive horns down the back of the neck. 
In color this animal is a sort of 
fawn-gray, darkening almost to gray- 
brown on the back, but very light on 
the underparts and legs. There is a 
(Continued on page 151) 
