ee — 
; 
: 
4 
4 
; 
E 
: 
q 
JAN., 1912. MaAmMaAts, VENEZUELA AND CoLomBia — Oscoon. 45 
accompanying it when both were killed near El Panorama; a second 
female, fully adult, taken on the savannas of Empalado; and a spotted 
fawn which had been kept some days as a pet at El Panorama but 
obligingly died the night before our arrival there. Specimens from Bonda 
and Guairaca, Colombia, seem referable to the new form; likewise two 
adults from Dibulla, Colombia, loaned by the Museum of Compara- 
tive Zoology. All the skulls examined except very aged ones show 
traces of sockets of upper canines and it seems probable that these 
teeth are normally present in the young. In the skull of the spotted 
fawn above-mentioned, the canines are well-developed. 
The tarsal gland in our three specimens is perfectly obvious in the 
dried skins, situated in a tuft of long hairs on the inner side of the 
hock, the central hairs which cover it being pure white except at the 
bases which are stained by sebaceous secretion. In the only Guiana 
specimen available, no traces of the gland are to be seen although it is 
possible they may have been destroyed in the preparation of the skin. 
Fitzinger and Lydekker, following him, state that this gland is not 
present in M. nemorivaga, but it is described and figured by Pocock 
(P. Z. S., p. 962, fig. 139, 1910) from a specimen which he believed “to 
have been correctly determined.”’ Its source is unmentioned. 
These little matacanes are quite abundant a short distance from the 
shore of Lake Maracaibo and thence eastward to the Empalado Sav- 
annas where they are much less numerous than the large deer (Odocoileus) 
to which the Spanish word venado, or deer, is exclusively applied. Like 
the larger deer, they feed upon the fallen fruits of various large trees, 
the ‘‘moquillo,” the ‘‘carocaro’’ (Pithecolobium), and the so-called 
ebony being the particular ones in bearing at the time of our visits. 
Our specimens were killed with buckshot, two as they came to feed at 
the foot of a large ebony tree and the third as it jumped and galloped 
excitedly for cover when suddenly surprised feeding under the brow of 
a low ridge in the savannas. 
Another brocket called locho, perhaps M. rufa, is described by the 
natives as larger and more reddish and of rather rare occurrence in the 
region. 
Local name Matacan. 
? Mazama bricenii Thomas. _ Merida Brocket. 
Tracks and fresh signs of a small deer, possibly of this species, were 
seen in rather rare instances on the upper slopes of Paramo de Tama. 
