34 Mr. C. II. Smith's Observations on some Animals 



gous animals in America at the time of the discovery of that conti- 

 nent. This opinion, for which he certainly could not have suffi- 

 cient grounds, led him into the error of ascribing the animals men- 

 tioned by Recchi in Hernandes, to the deer or roebuck kind. In- 

 deed, the singular form of the horns in one species, rudely figured 

 in the work, sufficiently justified a doubt, if he had not persisted 

 in describing the other and the two figures in Seba as deer or as 

 African animals, notwithstanding that the last-mentioned au- 

 thor, who obtained many of his specimens from Dutch Guiana, 

 positively asserted that they were both from New Spain. The 

 existence however of one, if not of both the species, in the 

 warmer parts of America, is established in my own mind from 

 the following circumstance. 



Some years ago, while I was on the coast of the Gulf of 

 Mexico, under circumstances peculiarly unfavourable to research 

 in natural history, the canoe in which I was having anchored 

 within the river St. Juan, the Musquito Indians who were with 

 me brought an animal on board, inferior in bulk to a domestic 

 goat, but higher on the legs ; in aspect resembling a small lean 

 sheep, with soft hair instead of wool : the horns about six inches 

 long, obscurely annulated, dark-coloured, bent back and pointed : 

 general colour pale-rufous brown : belly, inside of legs, breast 

 and chin yellowish-white : grey about the eyes and nostrils : tail 

 thick and short : legs more stout than those of African ante- 

 lopes : hoofs black : and the whole animal somewhat heavy in 

 make. . I was then unacquainted with the figure in Seba, and it 

 appeared an undescribed species. Having, however, no mate- 

 stag. As far as my own inquiries have gone, the word is generic for the deer, ante- 

 lopes and musks of America. Tetlelcal Ma fame, Temma Madame, Mafatl Chichiltic, 

 Yziac Macame, Tlamacaz que Macatl, Quauht Madame, and Tlahuica Ma fame, all 

 denote different animals, some of which are certainly not deer. I shall perhaps resume 

 this subject, if opportunities should offer, to notice several species of deer of America, 

 some of which are new, and the others imperfectly known. 



rials 



