The Living Animals of the World, Volume I: Mammals

The Japanese Deer, or Sika, was introduced into the park at Powerscourt by Viscount Powerscourt some thirty years ago. Now it is one of the commonest of recently introduced park-deer both in this country and in France. The venison is excellent, and the herds are prolific. The stags are small, but very strong, and at Powerscourt always get the better of the red deer stags, and sometimes carry off their hinds. Wapiti Deer are kept in several English parks, but so far the Sambar has proved a failure. Hog-deer and Chinese Water-deer do very well both in England and France. deer. But it is in New Zealand that the best results have been obtained with imported The English Ked Deer, some of which were originally sent out by the Prince Consort, reinforced by some of the same species bred in Australia, have become indigenous. They grow far faster and to a larger size than those on the Scotch moors, and rival the great stags of the Carpathians. The antlers also increase in size at an abnormal rate. Licences are regularly issued to stalk and shoot these deer, which, like the brown trout and the pheasant, are now among the stock of established wild fauna. Moose and a few Sambar stags and herds have well.also been turned out in New Zealand. The latter are said to be doing

of the World300 The Living Animals

There is no particular reason why the deer of cold countries should not be inter-seem to have the natural changed; they of oxen. But it is not a little adaptability surprising that the species from warm climates should nourish in damp and cold ones. The axis deer would be a real addition to the fauna of the great European forests, if it is found that it survives the winter snows without some form of artificial shelter. No one seems to have considered the advisability of introducing the mule-deer into the finer Central European woods. It is a much animal than the fallow buck, and the venison is excellent. In those woods where fallow deer are preserved in a wild state, as on many of the German Emperor's sporting-estates, the mule-deer would be a far more ornamental animal. Few people know what immense herds of red and fallow deer, as well as of wild boars, still exist, under careful preservation, in the forests of the great German, Austrian, and Russian princes, and in the royal forests of their respective

Photo by the Duchess of Bedford] [ Woburn Abbey, countries. his great Court YOUNG HIMALAYAN MUSK-DEER. When the Kaiser holds The male carries a pouch on the abdomen, from which the musk is hunting-parties, to which the guests all come obtained. There are no antlers. dressed in the uniform of the Order of St. Hubert, as many as 200 deer are shot in a day. They are driven past the guns by beaters. After the day's sport is over all the antlers are wreathed with boughs of spruce fir, and the stags laid out like rabbits after an English battue.

It is rather surprising that only one species of deer has been entirely domesticated viz. the Reindeer. Deer's meat is as highly prized as that of any other game, perhaps even more so. There is almost no part of the animal which is not useful. The horns are valuable for knife-handles, and always command a good price; they were prized even by prehistoric man, who converted them into pick-axes, and made spear-heads and daggers of them. The leather of : the American Indian or trapper the hide makes the softest and best of all hunting-garments always wears, or used to wear, a deer-skin shirt and deer-skin leggings, made as exquisitely soft all the best gloves as chamois leather by a process known to the squaws. At the present time are made of doe-skin; they are far the most costly of any gloves. Doe-skin breeches are also a luxurious garment to ride in. For ornamental rugs few skins beat those of the Dappled Deer, laid on the floor of some finely furnished hall or room.

Thus we have the curious spectacle of the wild men of the Far North, the Lapps and Ostiaks, taming and keeping in domestication great herds of deer, milking them, using them as beasts of draught, and feeding on their flesh, while far more civilised races in the South have not taken the trouble to do so. The reason is not easy to surmise, unless it be that the idea of making use of the Deer Tribe solely as beasts of the chase was so rooted in the European ruling races, and their kings and nobles, that the agriculturist never had a chance of trying to tame and use them for other purposes. It is certain that during the yMiddle Ages law and custom made any such attempt quite impossible. The deer were a valuible sporting asset, so hedged round with an atmosphere of feudal privilege, that to convert/them into something the powers that were. useful to the common people would have been regarded as an insult t/*

THE CAMEL-PLOUGH, USED IN ALGIERS.

Camels aro often used for agricultural purposes in North Africa, Syria, and India. In this particular case a special kind of plough is ewployed.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE CAMEL TRIBE AND THE CHEVROTAINS.

BY W. P. PYCRAFT, A.L.S., F.Z.S,

HE Camels and Llamas, constituting the present. group, form a very distinct section of the great assemblage of animals known as the Ruminants, or Cud-chewers. The Camel Tribe are peculiar amongst the Ruminants in that they never possess horns, and in-that the stomach is only divided into three instead of four compartments—this division into compartments being intimately connected with the ruminating habit. Furthermore, the upper jaw bears cutting-teeth, or “front teeth,” as they are popularly called: though the full set (three pairs) is only complete in the young, in the adult but one pair remains, A WHITE CAMEL, teeth are also peculiar in their position, eat the ‘lower jaw being separated from the cutting-teeth by a very considerable gap. ‘In' the structure of the feet the Camel Tribe are no less peculiar; indeed, it is on this character that the scientific name of the group is founded. Only two toes are present; these are of equal size, and, instead of being protected by hoofs, are provided with a hardened skin, covering a cushion-like pad, which expands when the weight of the body is thrown upon the foot, as in walking. This is an admirable adaptation for walking on soft and yielding sands. Hoofs are represented only by a pair of broad nails. Photo by E. Landor} [Baling. The three-chambered stomach is remarkable because the chamber known as the “paunch” lodges in its walls a large collection of “water-cells,” in which can be stored as much as a gallon and a half of water. This faculty of storing water is invaluable to an animal which has often to subsist for days on absolutely waterless deserts. Note the slit-like nostrils in the illustration of the Bactrian Camel on page 306. These can be closed at the will of the animal, a useful precaution against the entrance of sand during the violent sand-storms which often arise in the desert. Y The True Camels are “distinguished by the possession of a hump or humps: there ‘This individual belongs to the heavy breed employed for carrying are never more than two. It is in these merchandise and baggage. humps that the camel was popularly supposed 302 Photo by Charles Knight] [ Aldershot,

ARABIAN CAMEL,

The Camel Tribe and the Chevrotains 303

to store water; in reality they are huge masses of fat, serving as a reserve store of food. The accumulation of fat for this purpose is a common feature amongst the Mammalia. Most animals which hibernate, or lay up and sleep during the winter, store up fat; but, except in the camel, it is distributed more or less evenly over the body. With hard work or bad feeding the camel's hump dwindles almost to nothing. When on the eve of a long journey, the Arab looks anxiously to the state of this hump, for on the size of this depends the animal's condition and ability to undertake the march.

The Arabian camel as a wild animal has long since been extinct. Of the hordes of so-called wild camels which abound in the desert regions of Central Asia (Gobi Steppe), some are probably descendants of domesticated animals which have escaped from captivity, but others may be aboriginally wild. From the evidence of fossil camels, there seems little doubt that this animal originated in North America one branch of the family (the Llamas) migrating into South America, and the other (the Camels) crossing Bering Sea into the Old World.

THE TRUE CAMEL. Photo by York & Son} [Sotting Hill.

Before proceeding further, it may be well to refer to A CAMEL. the confusion which exists in the use of the names Camel A half-breed between the Arabian and Bactrian and Dromedary. The latter name seems popularly to be species. applied to the two-humped species, the name Camel being reserved for the one with a single is a swift breed of riding-camel of the one- hump. This is a mistake. The DROMEDARY humped species, and is so called to distinguish it from its slower brother, the Pack-camel, or

Photo by W. Reid]

A STRING OP CAMELS NEAR PORT SAID.

These are the typical desert-camels of the East.

Baggage-camel. The pack-camel, it is interesting to note, has been introduced into Australia, where it has proved invaluable in crossing the vast waterless deserts, on account of its power to exist for long periods without drinking.

The TRUE or ARABIAN CAMEL is found in a domesticated state in Africa and Asia, and, as we have just indicated, belongs to the one-humped species. It is a long-limbed, short-haired animal, standing as much as 7 feet high. As a wild animal it is extinct. Much mystery, indeed, surrounds the question of its origin. It has been suggested that the Arabian camel, or its immediate parent, may have sprung from an Indian ancestor, and thence made its way through Arabia and Syria into Northern Africa.

Not only is the camel indispensable as a beast of burden, but it is esteemed also for its hair, its flesh, bones, and milk. The hair is woven into cloth. In some parts of India the bones are used instead of ivory for inlaid work. The milk is unusually thick and rich, so much so that it cannot be used for tea or coffee, as it curdles when mixed with either.