li. P8EUDAXI8, 



farther observations on it. It was figured and described from a 

 single male specimen sent to Leyden. 



The specimens from Northern China sent by Mr. Swinhoe (which 

 I am inclined to think may be Cervus pseudaxis of Eydoux) 

 chiefly differ from Rusa japonka in being of a considerably larger 

 size, the Chinese species being as large as the Fallow Deer, and the 

 Japanese i?Msa considerably less — between that animal and the Eoe- 

 buck. 



"Dr. Gray has described these animals, believing them to be new, 

 in a recent number of the ' Annals of Natural History,' as Eusa 

 javanka (Ann. N. H. ser. iii. vol. vi. p. 218, Sept. 1860). But on 

 reference to the figure of Cervus pseiidaxis of MM. Eydoux and 

 Souleyet in the ' Zoology of the Voyage of the Bonite ' (Atlas, 

 pi. 3. Zool. p. 64), and to further details concerning the same ani- 

 mal given by Dr. Pucheran in the ' Archives du Museum d'Hist. 

 Nat.' (vi. pp. 416, 489), it seems probable that our new acquisition 

 may belong to the same species. The locality of the example figured 

 in the ' Voyage of the Bonite' was not ascertained ; but a second 

 specimen, brought home by the expedition of the ' Astrolabe and 

 Zelee,' was said to have come from the Sooloo Islands. This dis- 

 crepancy of localities is a fact which would lead me to beHeve that 

 our animals are different from Cervus jJseudaxis ; but in the struc- 

 ture of the horns, in the general colouring of the body, in the elon- 

 gation of the hairs of the mane and throat, and in the disappear- 

 ance of the white spots in winter, our specimens seem to me to 

 agree weU with the peculiarities indicated by the French authorities ; 

 and the male possesses partially developed canines, which are like- 

 wise spoken of in the case of Cervus pseiidaxis. 



" Mr. Blyth has also recently described a Deer from the island of 

 Formosa, under the name Cervus takuanus (Journ. As. Soc. Beng. 

 XXX. p. 90), which is probably likewise referable to this same species. 

 At the time of -^Titing this description, Mr. Blyth was inclined to 

 consider the Formosan animal different from a pair of the small 

 Deer of Japan, which he had living with him in Calcutta at the 

 same date. This opinion, however, he has subsequently modified, 

 stating, in a letter, addressed to me, dated July 4th of the present 

 year, with reference to the Formosan and Japanese Deer, which he 

 had then turned out together in his garden at Calcutta, that he 

 was ' satisfied that they were of one and the same species.' 



" My opinion therefore is — though I do not state it without hesi- 

 tation, against so high an authority on the subject of the Cervidce as 

 Dr. Gray — that Musa javanka is probably a synonym of Cervus 

 pseudaxis, Eydoux and Souleyet, and Cervus taiouamts, Blyth. But 

 there is, perhaps, a still older appellation for this little Deer. The 

 figure of Temminck and Siebold's Cervus sil-a, in the ' Fauna Japo- 

 nica,' certainly looks very Little hke the male of this species. The 

 •uniform coloming and the third branch to the horns are very no- 

 ticeable points in which it differs from our male Deer. To the de- 

 scription given in the same work 1 liavo unfortunately had no access, 

 the sheets containing it being deficient in the only copy I have been 



