CERVUS ACAPULCENSIS, Caton. 

 Acapulco Deer. 



Smallest of all the North American deer. Head broad and full. Eye 

 prominent and bright. Ear small and thin, covered with very short, fine 

 hair, black outside and white inside. Nostrils large. Nose naked and 

 moist. Neck slim, tapering, and elevated. Body short, round, and com- 

 pact. Legs short and slim. Accessory hoofs small. Tail short, bushy, 

 and rather fiat. Antlers small and short, and fiattened towards upper 

 part, and notched at end, with small basal snags ; beams are triangular 

 near base. Pedicels high and far apart. Metatarsal gland wanting. Tar- 

 sal gland present. Face black. Under the head and throat white, but 

 proportionally less than on common deer. Neck, back, and sides, dark 

 chestnut brown ; darkest on top of neck and back. Brisket nearly 

 black. Belly, inguinal region up to the tail, and under side of that mem- 

 ber, white. 



GENERAL REMARKS. 



After diligent search, I find bnt one mention of this deer by 

 which I am enabled to recognize it. This occurs in a sentence 

 in Audubon and Bachman's " Quadrupeds of North America " 

 (vol. ii. p. 200), when treating of our antelope. I will quote the 

 sentence entire : " The Antelope has no lachrymal pits under tlie 

 eyes, as have Deer and Elks, nor has it any gland on the hind leg, 

 so curious a feature in many of those animals of the deer tribe, 

 wliich drop their horns annually, and only wanting (so far as our 

 knowledge extends) in the Cervus Richardsonii, which we con- 

 sider in consequence as approaching the genus Antelope, and in 

 a small deer from Yucatan and Mexico, of which we had a living 

 specimen for some time in our possession." 



I cannot forbear correcting some of the important errors ex- 

 pressed in this single sentence. Of all authors which I have 

 consulted, here alone Cervus Columhianus is given the name of 

 Cervus Hichardsonu. Instead of being destitute of the metatar- 

 sal gland, it is the most conspicuous on him of any of the deer 

 family, except the mule deer, and the learned authors should 

 have known that that gland is wanting both on the moose and on 

 the caribou. They did not consider this gland of sufficient impor- 

 tance to require particular study, but merely considered it a curious 

 feature ; yet for its supposed absence they make an antelope of 



