A Trip to Pilawin, the Deer-park of Count Joseph Potocki in Volhynia, RussiaLydekker, Richard
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A Trip to Pilawin, the Deer-park of Count Joseph Potocki in Volhynia, Russia
Lydekker, Richard
Game reserves; Pilawin (Volhynia, Ukraine)
Although this information is valuable so far as it goes, it
unfortunately does not afford a definite clue as to which form of
Carpathian deer is referred to (see letters in the _Field_ for 1905,
vol. cv., pp. 326 and 355). Mr. Sokalski has, however, a fine pair
of Carpathian antlers characterised by their great massiveness, the
absence of a bez tine, and the position of the trez tine midway
between the brow tine and the curiously compressed and expanded crown.
A pair of much younger antlers from the same locality likewise lacks
the bez tine. An old antler of the same type from Galicia is figured on
page 220 of my _Great and Small Game Animals of Europe, N. and W. Asia,
and N. America_, and two antlers, one from Asia Minor and the other
from the Crimea, described and figured by myself in the Zoological
Society’s _Proceedings_ for 1890 (p. 363, pl. xxx.), likewise present
the same general characteristics, although the reduction of the tines
is still greater. Mr. Sokalski also possesses a pair of antlers (one
entire and the other imperfect) dug up a few years ago some fifty miles
distant from Pilawin which can scarcely be referred to any other deer
than the one under consideration, showing the same absence of the bez
tine and a similar conformation of the crown.
Assuming all these antlers to belong to the same type--and it is
difficult to come to any conclusion--we have evidence of a race of red
deer ranging from Volhynia through the Carpathians to Asia Minor and
the Crimea. So far as I can determine, this deer seems to agree with
Mr. Hamilton Leigh’s “grey Carpathian stag” (_Field_, 1905, vol. cv.,
p. 355), a race characterised by the relatively small number of tines
to the antlers. That (contrary to Mr. Leigh’s opinion) it is distinct
from the maral of Persia and the Caucasus, I have little doubt, and if
there were a good specimen in a public collection to take as a type, I
should be prepared to suggest for this race the name _Cervus elaphus
carpathicus_.
This, of course, leaves open the question as to the occurrence of
other stags in the Carpathians.
Both the Persian and Caucasian red deer (maral) do exceedingly well in
the Pilawin preserve, where they will doubtless before long form a big
herd. At Antoniny the Count keeps, for hunting purposes, a small number
of the so-called Polish deer from the Imperial preserves of Spala, in
Poland, which, to my great regret, I had no opportunity of seeing. I
trust, however, that he will send a head to the British Museum at no
very distant date.
[Illustration: A PEKIN OR DYBOWSKI STAG.]
In regard to the other deer at Pilawin, it will suffice to state that
two Dybowski fawns were born during the present year.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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