HUNTING & SHOOTING IN CEYLON 



jungle during a shooting trip with my cousins Roy Storey 

 and G. W. Sharpe, and we each worked very hard to 

 signalise Christmas Day by a bag of some sort, but I think 

 I was the only successful one, though my bag was only a 

 red buck which I came across in the forest whilst tracking 

 a spotted buck I had hit and failed to bring to bag. 



THE MOUSE DEER 



It is not quite known how this curious but interesting 

 little animal comes to be called " mouse deer," for it is 

 scientifically known not to be a deer at all, though I think 

 the popular error is a very natural one, and the name 

 may be taken, as Sir Emerson Tennent says, from the 

 Dutch "muis" or " mouse " deer. 



The little animal forms a class by itself and its correct 

 name is chevrotain, whilst the scientific name is Tragulus 

 meminna. It is found all over Ceylon, below about 2000 

 feet, and the same in the greater part of India, whilst 

 another species is found in the Malay Peninsula and 

 Islands. Lydekker, in his " Great and Small Game of 

 India," says, " I have been unable to find the origin of 

 the name meminna^ which is the specific title of this 

 animal, since it is not given as one of its native appella- 

 tions." There is no possible doubt about the origin, as 

 it is, and always has been, the true Singhalese name of 

 the little creature. The "minna" part of the name I do 

 not know the meaning of, but the "me" is almost un- 

 doubtedly the usual shortening of the Singhalese word 

 miya when conjoined to another word, and meaning a 

 rat thus the animal is the rat " minna," from some 

 fancied resemblance to a rat probably. 



It is a tiny little creature not more than 10 or 12 



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