142 MAMMALIA ORDER VLUNGULATA. 



they ascend on the face ; while the very small and simple antlers have no basal 

 knobs representing a brow-tine. The males have large upper canines, and the 

 hairs are coarse and almost quill-like. 



By far the greater number of the deer of the Eastern Hemisphere belong 

 to the typical genus Cervus, of which the most familiar examples are the red- 

 deer and the fallow-deer. From the 

 muntjacs and their allies all these 

 deer are easily distinguished by the 

 absence of the bony ridges which form 

 the bases of the long pedicles of the 

 antlers of the former. As a rule, the 

 antlers, which, as in most members 

 of the family, are confined to the male 

 sex, are of large size, considerably 

 exceeding the whole skull in length, 

 and they do not branch in the re- 

 gular forked manner characteristic of 



Fig. 79. MUNTJAC (Cervulus muntjac), the American deer. While, in the 



majority of the species, the antlers 

 are rounded, or slightly flattened, in a few they are flattened, or palmated. 

 Unlike those of the muntjacs, the upper canine teeth are of comparatively small 

 size, and in the lateral digits of the feet the bones are present. Although 

 the genus is mainly confined to the Old World, it is represented in North 

 America by the magnificent wapiti. In the main, deer are forest-haunting 

 animals, the old bucks going about with several does during the breeding 

 season, which they have obtained by driving away younger competitors, or 

 by vanquishing rivals of their own age. Generally but a single offspring is 

 produced by the hinds at a birth, and these, as is the case with almost all 

 Ungulates, are able to run by the side of their dam in the course of a few 

 days. Whereas the adults may be either uniformly coloured, or spotted with 

 white for a portion or the whole of the year, the young are very generally 

 spotted, although those of the Indian sambar are usually an exception in 

 this respect. Many of the uniformly coloured species of the genus display 

 a conspicuous white blaze on the buttocks, and in all the muzzle is naked 

 and narrow, while the antlers of the males arise at a sharp angle to the 

 middle line of the face. The European species are very regular in their 

 times of feeding and repose ; and, like other members of the family, the 

 males during the breeding season utter a peculiar " belling " cry, which is 

 both a challenge to rivals of their own sex, and likewise a call to the female. 

 The genus may be divided into several more or less well defined groups 

 according to the form of the antlers, and other structural features. 



Of these the first for consideration is the Rusine group, which is ex- 

 clusively confined to the Oriental countries, ranging as far eastwards as the 

 Philippine Islands. In this group the antlers are rounded and frequently 

 marked by strong vertical grooves, while they lack the so-called bez-tine (the 

 one arising immediately above the first, or brow-tine), and the upright and 

 slightly curved beam terminates in a simple fork, so that the number of points 

 to each antler is only three. The brow, or basal-tine, rises close to the 

 thickened rugose ring forming the base, and known as the burr, and makes 

 an acute angle with the beam, or main shaft. In the more typical forms, the 

 colour is uniformly brown, the tail is of medium length in all, and the neck 

 is generally maned. The largest and best known representative of this 



