normal. None of the Norwegian elk heads in this building, or in the Norwegian building from which they came, are so fine as the Swedish ones, or as several which I know of in England; and there is no Norwegian red deer equal to one in my possession from the island of Hitteren. Scan¬ dinavian reindeer are also poorly represented in comparison with elk, both as regards size and number.
The roe heads from South Sweden were also remarkably large and well developed, and seem to have been a great surprise to the German and Austrian sportsmen. It seems remarkable that this animal should be found over so Avide an area as from Sweden to Southern Spain in the West, and from Western Mongolia to the Caucasus in the East.
From the Caucasus came two fine wild goat heads, a splendid pair of the horns of the Caucasian tur (Capra cylindricornis), sent by Prince Demidoff; and though E. Juthner sent a fine Caucasian stag’s head with twenty-two points, I do not think from memory that it is equal to Mr. Littledale’s best head. Mr. Walter Winans sent some hybrid red deer and wapiti horns from Surrenden Park, and some very fine boar heads from Sachsenwald, for which he received a group prize.
The King of Italy sent a remarkable collection of ibex heads, killed by his grandfather and himself in the Royal preserves in the Yal d’ Aosta. The finest of these, which obtained first prize, was, according to Herr Schuster’s measurement, 31·89 inches in length and 8·86 inches in girth at the base. Several larger heads are recorded by Rowland Ward (Records of Big Game, ed. III., p. 347) as being in the collection of the King of Italy, and one which was shot by the late King Victor Emmanuel is there given as 33^- inches by 9 inches in girth, with a span from tip to tip of 39I inches. But Mr. Baillie-Grohman in Sport in the Alps, p. 267, states that, according to Count Hoyos, the largest head in the King of Italy’s collection is 30⅓ inches along the curve by 9¾ inches in girth and 29¾ inches from tip to tip, so there is probably some error in the Records of Big Game. All of these are straighter and stouter in comparison with their length than any of the horns of the Siberian and Himalayan ibex.
I saw no heads of the Spanish or Sinaitic ibex, and none of the wild goat from Asia Minor or Crete. Neither were there any stags’ antlers from Asia Minor, the Crimea or Turkey, so that the compulsory omission of con¬ tributions from Englishmen of these and many other animals not killed on British territory is much to be regretted.
When, however, we come to German collections of stags, fallow deer, roe and chamois, their number is simply bewildering; and though they have been very carefully judged, and the prizes awarded by a committee of Austrian and German connoisseurs, it is almost impossible to pick out the most striking. The head which received first prize belongs to Prince Alfred Montenuovo, and is figured by Mr. Baillie-Grohman on Plate XIV. of Sport in the Alps.
This stag was killed by a peasant in Hungary, and when killed the antlers weighed 29·7 pounds. According to Plerr Schuster, they measure 40·55 inches, with a spread of 42·12 inches, and the burr is ir8i inches in circumference. The head has eleven points on the right side and eight
