534 CERVIDJE. 



this deer is a coarse feeder and fond of cooked meat. When the 

 buck is attacked by dogs it uses its canine teeth in defence and 

 inflicts severe wounds with them. Colonel Hamilton has pointed 

 out that these teeth are not fixed firmly in the jaw, but that the 

 animal has some power of moving them. Several observers have 

 noticed a peculiar rattling noice, like that produced by a pair of 

 castanets, made by this deer when running, but the cause is not 

 known. Adams suggests that the sound is produced by the feet, 

 Hamilton and McMaster think it may be made by the long canine 

 teeth, but Kinloch says he has heard it made by a female, though 

 he also thinks it is produced by the mouth. 



The rutting-season in Northern India is chiefly in January and 

 February, the period of gestation is six months, and the young are 

 born, as a rule, in June and July, but some young are said to be 

 produced throughout the year : the female has one or two young 

 at a birth. The horns of the male fall in May and the new horns 

 are perfect in August. These details are from Hodgson. The flesh 

 is very good, superior to that of other Indian deer in general. 



363. Cervulus feae. Pea's rib-faced Deer. 



Cervulus feee. Thomas & Doria. Ann, Mus. Civ. Gen. 2, 2 a, vii. p. 92 

 (1889). 



A short tuft of hair between the horns. 



Colour above sepia-brown, speckled with golden brown, the hairs 

 of the back having golden-yellow tips. Legs darker. Lower parts 

 light brown. Forehead, horn-pedicels, and occiput brownish yellow, 

 with a blackish line down the inside of each pedicel to the brown 

 of the face. The hair around the hoofs, an indistinct line up 

 the front of each carpus and tarsus, and a distinct band, growing 

 broader above, up the front of each thigh, white. Tail with a 

 narrow black band above, the rest white. 



Dimensions of the type, a male : Total length 34-6 inches; tail 

 without hair 4, with hair 5-7 ; hind foot and tarsus 11-3 ; horn 2. 



Distribution. The only specimen known w r as obtained on Muleyit 

 mountain, west of Moulmein, by Mr. L. Fea. 



Genus CERVUS, Linn. (1766). 



Syn. Rusa, Axis, H. Smith (1827) ; Rucervus, Hodgson (1838) ; 

 Pseudocervus, Hodgson (1841); Procervus, Hodgson (1847); 

 Panolia, Gray (1843) ; Hyelaphus, Sundevall (1846). 



Antlers large, two or three times the length of the head, on 

 short pedicels. Upper canines never large and sometimes wanting. 

 No bony ridge on the face. The parietal region of the skull forms 

 an obtuse angle with the frontal plane, and a right angle with the 

 occipital. There is a large and deep lachrymal fossa, and an 

 extensive fissure or vacuity between the frontal, nasal, maxillary, 



