THE 
7 JOURNAL 
OF THE 
Natural History Society of Siam. 
Volume III. BANGKOK. Number 1. 
SOME NOTES ON CERVUS (RUCERVUS) SCHOMBURGKI. 
By, P: R. Kemp. 
Wir A PLATE. 
This deer is one of the rarest and least known of the Rucervine 
group of the family Cervidae, and should be of particular interest to 
members of this Society, since Siam is essentially the country in 
which it is to be found. 
The first record of this deer occurs in 1863 when Blyth describ- 
ed the species in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society, page 155. 
In that, or the previous year, a Siamese Embassy had been in 
London, and had presented a pair of loose horns, and odd right and left 
horns, of this deer, to Her Majesty Queen Victoria,* by whose command 
they were made over to the South Kensington Museum. 
Blyth when exhibiting these horns before the Zoological So- 
ciety, considered them to belong to an undescribed species of deer, 
“probably inhabiting Siam,” and he gave the species the name Cervus 
or Rucervus schomburgii, “in compliment to his distinguished friend, 
Her Majesty’s representative at the Court of Siam,” who was then 
Sir Robert Schomburgk. Blyth had seen a similar pair of horns before 
in Calcutta, in the possession of a sailor, who was, however, unable 
to give him any information about their origin, and he had put them 
down as a remarkable variety of horn of the Rucervus duvauceli, the 
“barasingha” of India, with which he was quite familiar. 
* This is somewhat remarkable, in view of the fact that the Siamese of 
today place no value whatever upon the horns of this deer. Eds. 
