40 The Stanleyan Chevrotain. 



many of the naturalists of the earlier part of the 

 century extremely doubtful whether the chevro- 

 tains should not, as is now the case, be placed 

 in a family by themselves. For example, in 

 Bennett's Zoological Gardens, published in the 

 year 1830, we read : " This remarkable difference 

 [the absence of the ' musk'], added to the great 

 dissimilarity in the form and structure of their 

 hoofs, and other minor points of discrepancy, 

 furnishes an obvious means of subdividing the 

 genus; and may probably, at some future time, 

 when the animals have become more completely 

 known, be adopted as the foundation of a generic 

 distinction." 



The Tragulina are wonderfully graceful little 

 creatures, about the size of rabbits, with the 

 most slender limbs imaginable, their legs being 

 little, if any, thicker than an ordinary cedar 

 pencil. They have long, delicately-pointed noses, 

 and very large lustrous dark eyes; indeed, except 

 for the fact that they are hornless, they have 

 much the appearance of deer seen through the 

 wrong end of a telescope. In reality, however, 

 many of their parts are very peculiar; chief 

 among these we may notice that their feet are 

 more like those of pigs than deer, as each foot 

 possesses four complete digits, and that their 

 stomachs, unlike those of most other ruminants, 

 have only three instead of four divisions, the 

 third division, or manyplies, being wanting. 

 There are two genera in the group, namely, 



