11 U 



Bljth and Elliot, vide page 2Go of Jerdon, are good authorities 

 for considering them the same animal : surely changes in season, 

 feeding and climate may make the differences in color and size 

 observed by some writers. Many names for the same animal arc 

 very likely to puzzle and dishearten sportsmen who should be able 

 to afford assistance to scientific naturalists. 



The natives of India assert that this little deer utters its peculiar 

 barking cry only when it comes on the scent or tracks of a tiger ; 

 but how far this notion is even founded on fact, I cannot say. I 

 have heard " the curious rattling noise, like that from two pieces 

 " of loose bone knocked together sharply ;" mentioned by Colonel 

 Markham, page 265 of Jerdon, and a brother sportsman, who had 

 never read his book or Jerdon's, when speaking to me of this noise, 

 compared it to the sound of " a pair of castanets." I think I have 

 also remarked it as a spotted deer broke past me ; but with refer- 

 ence to this, I probably was mistaken, as it is possible that a munt- 

 jac may, unperceived by me, have been on foot at the same time. 



Colonel Douglas Hamilton, the brother sportsman to whom I am 

 indebted for the remarks at page 79 of these notes, has suggested 

 to me that this extraordinary noise, which I do not think has yet 

 been accounted for, may be caused by the long canine teeth. He 

 pointed out, that these teeth, in the muntjac, are not rooted firmly : 

 but are movable, so to speak, or rather they are so loosely fixed 

 to the jaw, that they appear at the will of the animal, to be capable 

 of being placed at a different angle, both in a lateral and a forward 

 direction, to the extent of half, perhaps three-quarters of an inch 

 in the former, less in the latter. This power of moving his long 

 canine teeth at will, must greatly aid the muntjac in using them in 

 self-defence. Colonel Hamilton told me, that, when they were 

 attacking a male, his dogs have been severely wounded by these 

 scimitar-like weapons. We have just examined the head of a male 

 muntjac which he has killed when we have been shooting together 

 on the Neilgherries. That this power of moving the canine teeth 

 exists, neither of us has the slightest doubt. When the tooth is in 

 its quiescent state and close to the jaw, it can be of little use as a 

 means of defence, but when raised laterally it forms an angle with 

 the jaw and so becomes a very formidable weapon. 



