Dr. J. E. Gray on a Stag from N. China. 339 



psevdaxis of Eydoux, figured by Gervais in the ' Voyage of the 

 Bouite,' and its horns with those of the same animal figured by Dr. 

 Pucheran in the 'Archives du Museum' (vol. iv. t. 2-1. f. 2-8). 

 The specimens having been procured in the winter, agree with the 

 figures of the animal in that state on M. Gervais's plate. 



Mr. Swinhoe thought it might be the Cercus WaUichii of Cuvier, 

 but it has no affinity to that species. 



It is very like a series of animals (for now we have two pairs, and 

 they are breeding) which were received a short time ago by the Zoo- 

 logical Society from Japan, and which I described, under the name 

 oi Rusa japonic a, in the 'Annals and Magazine of Natural History' 

 for February 1861, p. 143 ; and in the form of the horns and in the 

 general appearance of the animal it agrees with the Cervits siAa, Tem- 

 minck, very shortly described and figured in the ' Fauna Japonica.' 



Dr. Sclater, in the ' Proceedings of the Zoological Society,' has 

 stated his opinion that my Riisa Japo7iica is probably the same as 

 Cervits si ka and also as Cervus pseudaxis. But Cervus pseiidaxis and 

 Rusa japonica differ from Cervus sika in having a large white anal 

 disk surrounded by a black edge, which is not represented in the 

 figure of Cervus sika, nor mentioned in the short and, I own, very 

 imperfect description of that species. 



I may state that Cervus pseudaxis appears to be a species of the 

 genus Rusa rather than Axis, with which I had placed it in the 

 ' Catalogue of the Ungulated Animals in the British Museum,' p. 215; 

 and it seems closely allied to the small species which inhabit the 

 islands of the Indian Ocean, that form the second section of the genus 

 Rusa in the catalogue above quoted ; but, as in the other species of 

 that section, we want much more materials in order to know what 

 are and what are not species of that group. 



The animal which has been figured under the name of Cervus 

 pseudaxis was obtained by MM. Eydoux and Souleyet in Java, but 

 they did not believe that it was a native of that country. It lived 

 several years in the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, and hence a series 

 of its horns was procured and figured ; and while there it bred 

 with the Common Axis, and the male produce was fertile (see 

 'Archives du Museum,' iv, p. -121). Some naturalists have given 

 the Sooloo Islands, near the Philippines, as the habitat of this speci- 

 men, but I do not know on what authority. 



The Chinese animal seems also to be much more spotted in the 

 winter season than its Japanese ally (Rusa japonica), which nearly 

 lost its spots in the Zoological Gardens during the winter of last year. 



The old male is furnished with a kind of mane ; that is to say, 

 the hair of the neck is longer and more rigid than that of the rest 

 of the body, except just over the tail, where it is also elongated and 

 rigid. The fur of all the three specimens is long and very close, 

 much more so than in its Japanese ally. The male is rather paler 

 in colour and less spotted than either of the hornless specimens ; 

 it has only an indistinct, rather darker line of rather longer hair 

 between the withers, and it has a large blackish space of rigid, rather 

 longer hair over the base of the tail. On the other hand, both the 



22* 



