THE ROEBUCK 



63 



correspondingly reduced in length as well as thickness. Its body-colour is mouse-brown, verging on 

 grey, whilst the hairy covering is coarse. It may be called DAVID'S MUNTJAC. 



Very shortly after the above-mentioned skins arrived at Paris, Mr. Michie, of Shanghai, for- 

 warded to Mr. Swinhoe in England another specimen from Ningpo, which, although derived so far 

 east of Moupin, is almost indistinguishable from that belonging to the latter district. The animal is 

 there known as the " Shanyang," or Wild Goat. It is an undoubted Muntjac, although peculiar in 

 not possessing the glands on the forehead found in the more common species. 



THE ROEBUCK* 



This elegant, small, and almost tailless Deer is, like the Red Deer, a native of Great Britain, 

 as well as of all Northern Europe and Asia below the line of perpetual snow. In Asia the indi- 

 viduals attain a greater size than in Europe. The adult Roebuck stands a little over two feet high 



ROEHUCK : MALE, FEMALE, AND YOl'XG. 



at the shoulder. Its colour is a dark reddish-brown in summer, becoming yellowish-grey in the cold 

 weather. There is a large patch of white on the rump. The antlers, which are peculiarly near 

 together at their bases, rarely exceed a foot in length, possessing three points, the rugose unbranched 

 beam continuing from the considerable burr for half a foot unbranched ; then bifurcating fore and 

 aft, the posterior branch again bifurcating. The destruction of the forests throughout Britain has 

 driven the Roebuck farther north, till now it is most common in the north of Scotland, although it 

 still survives in the woods of Westmoreland and Cumberland. Its disposition is wild, shy, and 

 cautious. Its favourite resort is the thick underwood of forests, living singly or in small companies 

 of a pair with their young, which latter contrary to what we find in the case of most other Deer 

 are two or three in number. Its venison makes very indifferent food. 



THE CHINESE WATER DEER.t 



This is an entirely isolated small species, not bigger than an Indian Muntjac, discovered by 

 Mr. Swinhoe, in which there are no antlers, the canine teeth of the upper jaw being developed into 

 immense tusks which project downwards, as in the Musk and Muntjacs. The legs are short, and 



Capreolus caprea. 



Hydropotes inermis. 



