SWINHOE'S DEER. n 



SWINHOE'S DEER (Cervus swinhoii). 



[Mr. SWINHOE on "Chinese Mammals," P.Z.S. 1870,^646.] 



["Cervus (Rusa) Swinhoii," SCLATER. P.Z.S. 1862, p. 152; SWINHOE, P.Z.S. 



1862, p. 364.] 



IN the central ranges of Formosa, near Mount Morrison, this brown 

 deer is very common ; and on a visit I paid to the wild tribes of 

 these parts in February 1866, I found them hunting the deer with 

 dogs. 



A place is cleared in the forest, where a party of men hide 

 armed with matchlocks ; the dogs yelp after the deer and drive 

 them into the open, where the hidden sportsmen get easy shots at 

 them. The son of the chief with whom I was staying had just 

 returned from a successful battue with the robust antlers and flesh 

 of a large buck. I induced him to return for the head, which he 

 had thrown away on the field. I was thus enabled to secure a fine 

 skull for the British Museum. 



The young of this species, about half-grown, is reddish brown, 

 with the tail bushy and black, but reddish at its root ; sides of the 

 body paler, and the belly blackish brown ; legs pale towards the 

 hoofs, the latter black ; under surface of tail, abdomen, and inner 

 sides of hind legs down to middle of shank yellowish white, the 

 breast and belly being blackish brown ; under surface of head and 

 neck mottled whitey brown ; crown of the head, with many of the 

 hairs, tipped with black ; from the occiput a dark line runs down 

 to the base of the tail ; ears blackish brown, tipped and margined 

 with ochreous white, and whitish on their insides. 



The adult, in summer, has its coarse hair deep brown, faintly 

 mottled, rufous on the rump ; between the fore legs and the thighs 

 ochreous white ; tail bushy and dark. In winter it becomes a 

 deeper brown. 



