. Fur and feather in North China . off males and females indiscriminately, Mdiereas yourtrue Shansi musk hunter would avoid shooting a doe. Some yearsago I reached a famous musk district in West Shansi, and foundthe local hunters in a furious state of mind over the depredations of aparty of Szechuan hunters, who in a few weeks had secured someseventy musk deer, mostly females, in their snares. Driven to ex-asperation the Shansi hunters had at last combined and sent theSztchuanese about their business. The musk like the water-deer of the Yang-tze Valley can be knock-ed over easily with bird sho
. Fur and feather in North China . off males and females indiscriminately, Mdiereas yourtrue Shansi musk hunter would avoid shooting a doe. Some yearsago I reached a famous musk district in West Shansi, and foundthe local hunters in a furious state of mind over the depredations of aparty of Szechuan hunters, who in a few weeks had secured someseventy musk deer, mostly females, in their snares. Driven to ex-asperation the Shansi hunters had at last combined and sent theSztchuanese about their business. The musk like the water-deer of the Yang-tze Valley can be knock-ed over easily with bird shot. The white ivory tusks of a good buckmake the head a nice trophy. EOE, MUSK AND SIKA. 13 SIIvA. Another deer, which is to be found iu certain restricted areas ofChihli and Shansi is the Pekin sika (Gervus Iwrtulonnn), sometimesknown as the Pekin Stag. This is perhaps the handsomest deer inNortih China, especially in the summer, when its rich red coat spottedwith white makes it a most elegant creature. It is a large deer, having. The Sika (Cervus hortulorum). very good horns, the record measurements of which are 2 feet 8|inches in length. Usually there are eight points, though a ten pointerhas been recorded. In Manchuria a very closely allied, though smaller species occurs,under the name of G. manchuricus. Other species occur in Japan, 14 EOE, MUSK AND SIKA. Formosa and along the Yang-tze Valley. The horns of these deerconform to the elaphiue type, but differ from those of the red deerand wapiti in having no bez-tine. The Pekin sika is of a dark grcy-browu in the winter, the whitespots becoming almost invisible. A full grown stag stands about 4feet at the shoulder. These deer are also greatly persecuted on accountof their homs, which when in velvet are worth more than those of anyother species. Manchm-ian sika horns have been known to fetch asmuch as Tls. 200 Tls. 300 per pair. At present the Pekin sika is known to occur only in a few veryremote and inaccessible districts
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookidfurfeatherin, bookyear1914
