. Animal Life and the World of Nature; A magazine of Natural History. 252 Animal Life to the existing fallow deer; were it living no deer known could compare with it for majesty of appearance. *&- A great contrast to the huge unwieldy moose is the neat little Sika stag, which is shown in his winter coat of uniform dark sepia- brown ; in summer he is chestnut with white spots, the seasonal colour-change present in so many deer being unusually well-marked in this species. When the stag's antlers are newly-grown and still in the velvet they have a remarkable colour, being bright chest
. Animal Life and the World of Nature; A magazine of Natural History. 252 Animal Life to the existing fallow deer; were it living no deer known could compare with it for majesty of appearance. *&- A great contrast to the huge unwieldy moose is the neat little Sika stag, which is shown in his winter coat of uniform dark sepia- brown ; in summer he is chestnut with white spots, the seasonal colour-change present in so many deer being unusually well-marked in this species. When the stag's antlers are newly-grown and still in the velvet they have a remarkable colour, being bright chestnut-red with black tips, and look very handsome. Although often not so big as the fallow deer, the sika stag is a compact little fellow, and looks not unlike a miniature of the red deer; his antlers also are of a somewhat similar type, but do not carry so many points, four being the usual number. The sika was long ago introduced into British parks, and does extremely well there ; indeed the animals breed Photograph by W. P. Dando, freely in their con- SAMBAK fined quarters at the Zoological Gardens. In parks they sometimes interbreed with the red deer, a somewhat remarkable fact when their great distinctness in size and other- characters is considered. There is one drawback to the sika as a park animal, and that is his savage disposition, in which he resembles the red deer and differs completely from the gentle fallow deer. For- tius reason it is not advisable to encourage sika deer to become tame, as a tame deer, if of a savage race, is sure sooner or later to abuse his familiarity with man, with very serious re- sults. Sika deer come from Japan and North- East Asia, the mainland form being large!'. This species (Gervus taevanus), which is confined to the mountains of F™r!an Formosa, is a near ally of the Sika, but undergoes little colour-change according to season, the coat being always spotted and more or less reddish in colour. The The powerful but somewhat
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