1888.] PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 417 



DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SPECIES OF DEER, CARIACUS CLAVA- 

 TOS, FROM CENTRAL AMERICA. 



BY FREDERICK W. TRUE. 



lu Messrs. Salviu and Godmau's Biologia Centrali- Americana, Alston 

 enumerates four species of deer as inhabitants of the region between 

 Texas and the Isthmus of Panama, These are Cariacus macrotis (Say). 

 Cariacus virginianu8(Bo&d&ert),Cariacus toltecus (S&usswe), Cariacus ru- 

 fimis (Bourcier et Pucheran). Of these, the first three belong to the 

 subgenus Cariacus, as defined by Sir Victor Brooke, and the fourth to 

 the subgenus Coassus. 



It is now my intention to add to the list of Central American deer a 

 fifth species, which, as I shall presently show, presents a superficial 

 resemblance to the species of the subgenus Goassus, but belongs in real- 

 ity to the subgenus Cariacus. 



The description is based upon a good series of specimens in the Na- 

 tional Museum, including young and adult individuals of both sexes. 

 The species never acquires branched antlers, and I have therefore 

 chosen for it the name of Cariacus clavatus. 



DESCRIPTION OF CARIACUS CLAVATUS. 



Stature medium ; antlers simple spikes, directed backwards nearly 

 in the Hue of the face. In general appearance and color like C. virgin- 

 ianus. A small metatarsal gland present. Hoofs yellowish at the ex- 

 tremity. 



Male, young, summer pelage. — Geueral color bright chestnut, Head 

 grayer than the back. A white spot on each side of the rhinarium, 

 succeeded by an oblique dusky-brown band, which reaches from the 

 nostril to the margin of the upper lip, and is continued by a spot on the 

 margin of the lower lip. Behind the dusky band is one of whitish 

 gray, which is merged into dark gray posteriorly. The latter color is 

 strongly tiuged with chestnut on the cheeks, temples, and forehead. The 

 median line of the face is occupied by a dusky-brown baud, which ex- 

 tends backwards nearly to the line of the eyes. The forehead is occu- 

 pied by a broad crest of long reflexed hairs, which in the mass are darker 

 than those of the face. The individual hairs are brownish -gray at the 

 base, darker near the tip, where this color is succeeded by a ring of light 

 yellow, more or less reddish ; the tips of the hairs are dusky brown. 

 There is a whitish-gray ring around the eye, conspicuously lighter than 

 the gray of the face. 



The outer surface of the ear is for the most part gray, but there is 

 a rather large area of nearly pure white at the base of the posterior 

 free margin, and another smaller area at the base of the anterior margin. 

 Proc. N. M. 88 27 0^ <>,(**? . 



