Mr. P. L. Sclater on the Rusa japonica. 143 



A pair of a very beautiful small species of Deer, quite new to the 

 collection, were presented to the Society in July last by J. "Wilks, 

 Esq. They were obtained at Kanegawa, in Japan, and brought 

 to this country by Captain D. Rees, of the ship ' Sir F. Williams.* 

 Dr. Gray has described these animals, believing them to be new, 

 in a recent number of the * Annals of Natural History,' as Rusa 

 japonica (Ann. N. II. ser. 3. vol. vi. p. 218, Sept. I860). But on 

 reference to the figure of Cervus pseudaxis of MM. Eydoux and 

 Souleyet in the ' Zoology of the Voyage of the Bonite ' (Atlas, pi. 3, 

 Zool. p. 64), and to the further details concerning the same animal 

 given by Dr. Pucheran in the 'Archives du Museum d'llist. Nat.' 

 (vi. pp. 416, 489), it seems probable that our new acquisition may 

 belong to the same species. The locality of the example figured in 

 the * Voyage of the Bonite ' was not ascertained ; but a second speci- 

 men, brought home by the expedition of the ' Astrolabe and Zelee,' 

 was said to have come from the Sooloo Islands. This discrepancy 

 of localities is a fact which would lead me to beheve that our 

 animals are different from Cet'vus pseudaxis ; but in the structure of 

 the horns, in the general colouring of the body, in the elongation of 

 the hairs of the mane and throat, and in the disappearance of the 

 white spots in winter, our specimens seem to me to agree well with 

 the peculiarities indicated by the French authorities ; and the male 

 possesses partially developed canines, which are likewise spoken of 

 in the case of Cervus pseudaxis. 



Mr. Blyth has also recently described a Deer from the island of 

 Formosa, under the name Cervus taiouanus (Journ. As. Soc. Beng. 

 XXX. p. 90), which is probably likewise referable to this same species. 

 At the time of writing this description, Mr. Blyth was inclined to 

 consider the Formosan animal different from a pair of the small Deer 

 of Japan which he had living with him in Calcutta at the same 

 date. This opinion, however, he has subsequently modified, stating, 

 in a letter addressed to me, dated July 4th of the present year, with 

 reference to the Formosan and Japanese Deer, which he had then 

 turned out together in his garden at Calcutta, that he was " satisfied 

 that they were of one and the same species." 



My opinion therefore is — though I do not state it without hesita- 

 tion, against so high an authority on the subject of the GervidcB as 

 Dr. Gray — that Rusa japonica is probably a synonym of Cervus pseud- 

 axis, Eydoux and Souleyet, and Cervus taiouanus, Blyth. But there 

 is, perhaps, a still older appellation for this little Deer. The figure 

 of Temminck and Siebold's Cervus sika, in the ' Fauna Japonica,' 

 certainly looks very little like the male of this species. The uniform 

 colouring and the third branch to the horns are very noticeable 

 points in which it differs from our male Deer. To the description 

 given in the same work I have unfortunately had no access, the 

 sheets containing it being deficient in the only copy I have been able 

 to consult. But Mr. Bartlett, who has lately returned from Hol- 

 land, informs me that a female Deer living in the Gardens at Am- 

 sterdam, and there considered as Cervus sika, is undoubtedly the 

 same as ours ; and as the Dutch naturalists have consulted the type 



