540 CEKVID.I. 



especially along the spine, whitish or white on the throat and 

 belly and inside the thighs, and always white beneath the tail. 

 Females paler than males. Young spotted. 



Dimensions. Height at shoulder 44 to 46 inches ; length nearly 

 6 feet ; tail 8 to inches, without hair 5 ; ear 7. Extreme length 

 of a skull 15-3, breadth across orbits 6. Large stags in Cooch 

 Behar are said to have weighed from 32 stone 12 lbs. to 40 

 stone 10 lbs., or 460 to 570 lbs. ('Asian," April 3rd, 1891). 

 Average horns measure 30 inches round the curve, with a girth of 

 5 at mid-beam ; extreme measurements 38 and 5*25. 



Distribution. Along the base of the Himalayas from Tipper 

 Assam to the Kyarda Dun west of the Jumna, throughout Assam, 

 in a few places in the Indo-Gangetic plain from the Eastern 

 Sundarbans to Bahiiwalpur and to Kohri in Upper 8ind, and locally 

 throughout the area between the Ganges and Godu\ai'i as far east 

 as Mandla, this deer being common in parts of the Upper Ner- 

 budda valley and to the south in Bastar and the neighbourhood. 

 Forsyth has shown that the range of C. duvauceU in the Central 

 Provinces corresponds with that of the sal tree {Sliorea rohusta) 

 and red jungle-fowl {Gallus hanlciva). In the Denwa valley, 150 

 miles M'est of the main s:ll region, and not far from Pachmarhi, 

 an isolated patch of sal forest contains both this deer and the 

 jungle-fowl. I have seen heads of this stag shot in Upper 8ind 

 by General Marstou, and there are two on the mosque at Ghotki in 

 the Rohri district. 



Habits. The twelve-tined deer is not found in thick forest, but 

 keeps on the skirts of the woods and on flat or undulating grass 

 plains more or less interspersed with trees. It is known as 

 the "Swamp-deer" in parts of Xorth-eastern Bengal, but the 

 term, though used as its English name by Jerdon, is scarcely 

 appropriate. The barasinglia is sometimes met with in open 

 forest. In the winter it is highly gregarious, herds of from thirty 

 to fifty being met with, whilst in Mandla, and probably elsewhere, 

 about September and October, several hundreds sometimes collect. 

 The rutting-season follows. At the end of March in Assam the 

 bucks are found in grass singly, with the horns for the most part 

 partly grown and in velvet, so the old horiis must there be shed as 

 a rule not later than February. 



This deer feeds chiefly on grass. Forsyth says that it is much 

 less nocturnal than the sambar, and although it rests in the shade 

 about midday, it may be found gi-azing late in the forenoon and 

 again early in the afternoon. Anderson found that a male in 

 confinement was fond of lying in water in the hot season. 



I have examined the type of 0. dimorplie, and ascertained that 

 it belongs to this species and not, as Blyth supposed, to C. eldi. 

 Mr. Thomas, I find, had made the same identification. 



An allied species, C. schomburgl'i (Blyth, P. Z. S. 1863, p. 155, 

 1867, p. 835, figs. 6-12), eliiefly distinguished by the undivided 

 portion of the beam in each horn being shorter than the branches, 

 is found in Siam and may be met with in tlic Shan Slates east of 

 Upper Burma. 



