QUADRUPEDS. 4& 



large as an elk, and is represented by British sportsmen in 

 India as exceedingly vicious as well as strong. Some of 

 these, while engaged in a shooting expedition, had crossed' 

 an arm of the Jumna to a well-wooded island in search of 

 game ; they were mounted on an elephant, and, entering 

 the jungle suddenly, they roused an old male of this species. 

 " On se'eing the elephant," says Major Smith, " he started 

 up with a loud shrill pipe or whistle, which caused others 

 to rise and dart into cover, while he stood at bay with his 

 bristly main on end in a most threatening attitude ; but 

 before the sportsmen could prepare proper shot, he wheeled 

 round and dashed through the underwood with the facihty 

 of a rhinoceros." It is to this species that the name of elk. 

 is erroneously applied by many Anglo-Indians. Its head, 

 shoulders, back, and buttock are dark brown in summer, 

 and in winter nearly black. The belly, and a ring round 

 the nostrils and mouth, are whitish. The insides of the 

 legs are fawn-colour, and the breast is black. Captain 

 Williamson describes it as attaining to the size of a Lincoln- 

 shire cart-horse (fifteen or sixteen hands high), of a shining 

 black, with tanned points. He adds that the females are 

 of a mouse-colour. There are heads of this species in the 

 British Museum. 



Other species of Rusa inhabit the Indian archipelago, 

 the island of Tijnor, the peninsula of Malacca, and the 

 Marian Islands, — but our restricted limits will not admit, 

 of our entering into any further details in illustration of 

 this very striking and peculiar group. 



The spotted axis {Cervxis axis) resembles the fallow-deer, 

 but is easily distinguished from it by the roundness of its 

 horns, and the want of a terminal palm. The female, 

 however, is with difficulty discriminated from the doe of the 

 fallow-deer. It was the opinion of Pennant, that the spot- 

 ted-deer of our preserves came originally from Bengal, but 

 in the fourth edition of Gwillim's Heraldry (1660, p. 171) 

 the spotted biick is quoted as borne in ancient coats-of-arms 

 at a period long anterior to any British intercourse with In- 

 dia. The fallow-deer itself appears from various historical 

 and etymological considerations, into which we cannot at 

 present enter, to have been indigenous to the southern and 

 central districts of Europe. The axis, however, is the best 

 and most anciently known of all the Asiatic species. It is 



Vol. hi.— E 



