The Chital, or Indian Spotted Deer 



By sportsmen this deer is commonly called axis, a 

 name applied by Pliny (and adopted from him by 

 Belon) to an Indian animal which there is every reason 

 to believe is the present species, of which indeed it 

 forms the scientific title. For ordinary purposes it 

 is, however, preferable to adopt the Hindustani name 

 chital, of which spotted deer is a translation. 



With the exception of a darker species from the 

 Philippines, the chital is the only rusine deer spotted 

 with white at all seasons of the year. Indeed it is, 

 with the above-named 

 exception, the only deer 

 that is as fully spotted in 

 winter as in summer, fal- 

 low-deer losing all spots 

 in the former season, 

 while these generally tend 

 to disappear at the same 

 season more or less com- 

 pletely in the Japanese 

 deer and its larger rela- 

 tives. 



In size the chital may 

 be described as medium, 



, , . , , . , Fig. 41. — Chital Hind at Woburn Abbey, 



the height at the withers photograplie<l by the Duchess of Bedford. 



usually ranging between 



26 and 38 inches. It has a rather long and pointed 

 head, elongated limbs, and a generally light and grace- 

 fully built frame. There seems no decided seasonal 

 difference in the colour of the coat, of which the general 

 hue is light rufous fawn, marked all over the body 

 with large rounded spots, which tend to arrange them- 

 selves in longitudinal lines along the back and im- 

 mediately above the white of the under surface ot the 

 body. A dark stripe runs from the nape of the neck 

 to the tip of the tail, on each side of which the spots 

 form at least one well - marked line. The chin, the 

 upper part of the throat, the inner surface of the 



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