388 THE HIGHLAXDS OF CEXTEAL IXDIA. 



the valleys contain the bison, the sambar, and the 

 black bear, like similar tracts in other parts of the 

 province. These are animals peculiar to no part of 

 India, and the same may be said of the spotted deer, 

 which affects the densely wooded banks of the larger 

 streams. But, as I have said, we are here within the 

 limits of the great sal belt, and come upon some animals 

 which I have noticed as coinciding in. range therewith. 



Chief in interest among these is the beautiful twelve- 

 tined deer {Rucervus DuvauceUii), called by some the 

 Baia-singha, a name which simply means " twelve- 

 tined," and which is applied also to the Kashmir stag 

 (C. Cashmiriensis). In size it is intermediate between 

 the sambar and the spotted deer, and almost the same 

 as the red deer of Scotland. In colour it is a reddish 

 brown during the cold season, passing through a bright 

 rufous chestnut in spring to a rich golden red in summer. 

 The antlers are very handsome, and differently shaped 

 from those of any other deer in the world. They have 

 but one basal tine over the forehead, no median tines at 

 all, and all the other branches arranged at the summit 

 of the beam. Here they show a tendency to approach 

 the Rusine type, to which belong the sambar and the 

 axis, the beam being first divided into a terminal fork, 

 each branch of which afterwards splits into several 

 points. Usually the outward or anterior branch bears 

 three such points, and the inward or posterior two, 

 making, with the brow-antler, six points on each horn. 

 Very old stags sometimes have more ; but, as in the 

 RusincB, when there are more than three the extra ones 

 are abnormal monstrosities, and the antlers are usually 

 unsymmetrical and stunted in size. The horns are 

 grayish in colour, and of a smoother surface than those 

 of the sambar. They are not nearly so massive, nor so 



