CARIACUS. 117 
“Indians keep the horns and place them about their ranchos to hang things on. 
Numbers of horns were brought us which, judging from their smoked state, must have 
done duty as pegs for many years. We believe that Deer-hides are exported from 
Guatemala, but in comparatively small numbers. From the various ports of Nicaragua 
many bales are annually sent to the American or European markets.” 
The above remarks on the Indians hunting Deer, and using their antlers as pegs, are 
interesting when compared with Lionel Wafer’s account of the habits of the Darien 
Indians two centuries ago. “They have,” he says, “considerable Store of Deer also, 
resembling most our Red Deer; but these they never hunt nor kill; nor will they ever 
eat of their Flesh, though ’tis very good ; but we were not shy of it. Whether it be out 
of Superstition, or for any other Reason that they forbear them, I know not: But when 
they saw some of our Men killing and eating of them, they not only refus’d to eat with 
them, but seem’d displeas’d with them for it. Yet they preserve the Horns of these 
Deer, setting them up in their Houses; but they are such only as they shed, for I never 
saw among them so much as the Skin or Head of any of them that might show they 
had been kill’d by the Indians; and they are too nimble for the Warree, if not a 
Match for him” *. 
In Nicaragua, too, times have changed for the worse for the Deer. The late Mr. Belt 
visited the cabin of a native hunter, who used a trained ox as a stalking-horse to cover 
his approach to the herd; and game was so plentiful that he generally brought home 
two Deer, the skins of which averaged about five pounds in weight and sold for twenty 
cents per pound. “It is astonishing that the Deer should be so little afraid of man as 
they are, after having been objects of chase for probably thousands of years. Sometimes 
when one is encountered in the forest, it will stand within twenty yards, stupidly gazing 
ata man, or perhaps striking the ground impatiently with its fore foot, and sometimes 
waiting long enough for an unloaded gun to be charged” f. Dr. v. Frantzius says that 
in Costa Rica the Venado inhabits the borders of the virgin forests and sometimes does 
great damage in the neighbouring maize-fields. The adult bucks, which are called 
Capatanes or captains, on account of their leading the herds, are extremely shy, and are 
consequently rarely killed by the hunter 1. 
8. Cariacus toltecus. 
Cervus toltecus, de Saussure, Rev. et Mag. Zool. 1860, p. 247, pl. xv. fig. 1 (descr. orig.) ". 
Cariacus toltecus, Brooke, P. Z.S. 1878, p. 921°. 
Cervus yucatanensis, Hays, Aun. Lyc. New York, x. p. 218, pl. x. (1874, descr. orig.)’. 
Cervus acapulcensis, Caton, Ant. & Deer Am. p. 113 (1877, descr. orig.)*. 
Hab. Mexico, Acapulco (Hassler Exp., Mus. Coll. Harv.*), Ovizaba (de Saussure), 
Yucatan (Hays*). 
* Dampier’s ‘ Voyages,’ ili. p. 329. tT ‘Naturalist in Nicaragua,’ pp. 252, 253. 
