AXIS MACULATUS. 261 



THE SPOTTED DEER. 



Descr. General colour yellow or rufous-fawn, with numerous white 

 spots, and a dark dorsal streak from the nape to the tail ; head brownish 

 and the muzzle dark ; chin, throat, and neck in front white j lower 

 parts and thighs internally, whitish ; ears brown externally, white 

 within ; tail longish, white beneath. The basal tine is directed forwards, 

 and in old individuals has often one or two points near the base. 



Length, about 4| to nearly 5 feet ; height at shoulder 36 to 38 inches. 



Hodgson insists that there are two species of spotted deer, which he 

 named, respectively, Axis major and Axis medius, the latter as being 

 intermediate in size to the larger kind and the hog-deer, Axis minor 

 apud Hodgson. These are ignored by Blyth and Gray, but I am inclined 

 to agree with Hodgson in this from my personal knowledge of the 

 spotted deer of Malabar and of Central India. When I first saw horns 

 of the spotted deer killed in Central India, and subsequently killed it 

 myself, I was astonished at their size and their greater smoothness, as 

 compared with specimens of the Southern Indian Axis, and on making 

 the proper references, found that Hodgson had distinguished them. 

 From want of specimens, however, I am at present unable to point out 

 their specific differences except in a general way, and have therefore 

 allowed both to stand under Axis maculatus. 



It appears to me very probable that Kelaart's Axis oryzeus is either 

 the same, or a still smaller race of spotted deer. Blyth, indeed, classes 

 the Ceylon animal as a variety of the hog-deer, but states that it is 

 somewhat lighter in form, with the menilling more distinct in summer 

 vesture, and the horns perhaps longer on the average, with the inner 

 prong of the terminal fork branching at a less abrupt angle, all tending 

 to approximate nearer to A xis maculatus. Now, if these differential 

 points be extended a little more, they would tally nearly with the spotted 

 deer of Malabar. This animal has the horns much longer than in the 

 hog-deer, slender in make, and rougher externally than those of the 

 deer of Central India, with the bifurcated extremity as described by 

 Blyth of the Ceylon deer, and the basal antler longer and more directed 

 upwards. I never saw, in the South of India, any disposition to throw off 

 points on the basal tine, as in the large Axis. It always retains its spotted 

 pelage, and is a good deal smaller than the northern deei, standing about 

 30 to 34 inches in height, and is a light and graceful animal, very unlike 



