DEER. 



361 



Distribution. 



Habits. 



The swamp-deer is confined to India, where it has a local 

 distribution ; being found along the foot of the Himalaya, from 

 Assam to some distance west of the Jumna, and in some districts in the Indo- 

 Gangetic plains, such as the Bengal sandarbans and Rohri in Sind. It is also 

 common in certain portions of Central India, especially in the valley of the Narbada, 

 where its habitat is limited to the area clothed with forests of the sal tree. 



The swamp-deer, although sometimes found in open forest, 

 generally keeps in the outskirts of the woods, and frequents flat or 

 undulating grass-lands, more or less interspersed with trees. In winter it is 

 gregarious, herds of from thirty to fifty head being frequently met with, while in 

 some districts herds of several hundreds have been observed during September and 

 October. In Assam the bucks are met with singly, with the antlers for the most 

 part still in the velvet, so that the shedding-time is probably, as a rule, not later 

 than February. The swamp-deer is mainly a grazer, and it is said to be much less 

 nocturnal in its habits than the 

 sambar, being not unfrequently 

 seen grazing in the forenoon, and 

 again early in the afternoon, 

 schomburgk's Schomburgk's deer 

 Deer - (C. schomburgki), of 

 Siam, is an allied species, of which 

 the antlers, as shown in the figure 

 on this page, are distinguished by 

 the extreme shortness of the beam 

 below the bifurcation, and the 

 great length of the brow -tine. 

 Each antler usually carries five 

 points; and specimens vary in 

 length from 27 to 30 inches in good 

 examples. 



An altogether 

 unique form of antler 

 is that of Eld's deer (C. eldi), as 

 shown in the figure on p. 340. 

 Here the brow -tine curves down 

 over the forehead, so as to form an 

 almost continuous sweep with the 

 beam; the latter being curved at 

 first backwards and outwards, and 

 then slightly forwards, after which it divides into a short fork, of which the two 

 prongs may split up into as many as eight or ten points. The upper surface of the 

 brow-tine often carries a number of short points, and there is very generally a 

 distinct snag at the point where that tine joins the beam. In some cases the 

 upper part of the beam is much flattened. In height this species stands nearly 

 the same as the swamp-deer. In winter the colour of the fur of the bucks is 

 dark brown, tending to black, but in summer it is fawn-coloured, nearly like that 



Eld's Deer. 



HEAD OF SCHOMBURGK'S DEER. 

 (From Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc., 1877.) 



