2. PSEUDAXIS. 71 



the common Axis, and the male produce was fertile (see ' Archives 

 du Museum,' iv. p. 421). Some naturalists have given the Sooloo 

 Islands, near the Philippines, as the habitat of this specimen, but I 

 do not know on what authority. 



The Formosan animal seems also to be much more spotted in the 

 winter season than its Japanese ally (Musa japonica), which nearly 

 lost its spots in the Zoological Gardens during the winter of last 

 year. 



The old male is furnished with a kind of mane ; that is to say, 

 the hair of the neck is longer and more rigid than that of the 

 rest of the body, except just over the tail, where it is also elon- 

 gated and rigid. The fur of all the three specimens is long and 

 very close, much more so than in its Japanese ally. The male is 

 rather paler in colour and less spotted than either of the hornless spe- 

 cimens ; it has only an indistinct, rather darker line of rather longer 

 hair between the withers ; and it has a large blackish space of rigid, 

 rather longer hair over the base of the tail. On the other hand, 

 both the hornless skins have a distinct, weU-marked black dorsal 

 streak, which is wider, more distinct, and formed of longer hair on 

 the back of the neck; and they have only a broad, weU-marked 

 black edge on the upper surface and side of the white anal disk. 

 The tail in all the specimens is white, with a black streak along 

 the middle of the upperside of the base. In this respect it also 

 agrees with M. japonlca. 



I may state that the distinctions of this species of Stags are very 

 difficult to describe by words ; yet the aUied Deer from different 

 countries are generally to be best distinguished by their size and 

 habitat ; and that may be the case with this and the other small 

 BuscB which are described as coming from Timor, the PhiUppines, 

 and Formosa. 



The two skulls which accompanied the skins present a considerable 

 difference in the form and depth of the preorbital pit : and this ob- 

 servation is of some importance, as the size, form, and depth of this 

 pit has been regarded by some zoologists as presenting a good spe- 

 cific distinction ; but I have observed a similar difference in skulls 

 of apparently the same species of the genus Cariacus. The skulls 

 are not of the same age ; but I do not think that this can have any 

 effect on the form or depth of the pit. The skull of the male is of 

 a young animal, the hinder grinder being in the course of deve- 

 lopment ; and the horns are simple, without any snags, like the 

 horn figured in ' Arch, du Mus.' vi. t. 24. f. 2, but even wanting 

 the basal snag, and they are covered with hair. In this skull the 

 preorbital pit is large, subtrigonal, and not quite so deep as it is wide, 

 rounded at the base. 



The skuU of the female is rather larger, and belongs to an adult 

 animal, with all the grinders well developed. In this skuU the pit 

 is oblong, not so broad as long, and very much deeper (I shoidd say, 

 nearly twice as deep), aud has a large aperture at the hinder part 

 of its base, evidently for the transmission of some vessel, which is 

 not to be seen in the skuU of the male. 



