CKKVUS. 545 



or 10,000 feet, and is common on the summits of the ranges in 

 Southern India and Ceylon. It is not common on alluvial flats, 

 though it is occasionally found on them, at considerable distances 

 from any hills. It is, of course, wanting in the treeless plains of 

 the Punjab, 8ind, and Western Eajputana. 



Varieties and Nomenclature. This fine deer appears to have been 

 fii'st mentioned by Pennant, who described it as tlie middle-sized 

 and greater Axis (^Cervus axis unicolor and C. axis major of Kerr). 

 To these forms the names of Cervus unicolor and C. alhicornis 

 were applied by Bechstein. Cuvier, in the second edition of his 

 • Ossemens Fossiles," named different varieties C. liippelaphus and 

 C. equinus, and two years afterwards added the names of 0. aristo- 

 telis and C. hschenatiltii, given to horns only. Why the name 

 C. aristoteUs, given'to an abnormal horn, has been preferred for the 

 Indian Sambar it is difficult to say. The name C. unicolor, era- 

 employed by Hamilton Smith, is prefei\ible on account of both 

 priority and suitability, being an appropriate term for the only 

 Indian deer with unspotted young. 



Continental forms of sdmbar do not greatly vary in size, though 

 some Malay Island varieties are very much smaller. Horns from 

 the Himalayas, Assam, and Burma are inferior in size to those 

 from Central India and Bengal. Moreover, whilst in Indian 

 heads the two upper tines generally are nearly equal in length, in 

 Burmese heads the inner tine is considerably shorter than the 

 outer, and the brow-antler is much longer in proportion to the 

 others, as in the Malay form usually called O. equinus. The name 

 C. 7ii2)p)elap7ms is by Brooke and others applied to a Malay variety 

 in which the inner tine is the longer. But all the three names 

 were by Horsfield and others used for varieties found in the 

 Peninsula of India. Elliot showed that these passed into each 

 other, and Blyth, correctly as I believe, united the Himalayan, 

 Burmese, and Malay races with the Indian. 



Habits. This is the woodland deer of South-eastern Asia gene- 

 rally, and is more widely and generally distributed than any other 

 species. Although it does not shun the neighbourhood of man to 

 the same degree as Bos ijaurus does, it is only common in wild 

 tracts of country. It comes out on the grass slopes where such 

 exist, as in the Nilgiris and other hill-ranges, to graze, but 

 filways takes refuge in the woods. It is but rarely found asso- 

 ciating in any numbers ; both stags and hinds are often found 

 singly, but small herds from four or five to a dozen in number 

 are commonly met with. Its habits are nocturnal ; it may be 

 seen feeding in the morning and evening, but it grazes chiefly at 

 night, and at that time often visits small patches of cultivation 

 in the half-cl'^ared tracts, returning for the day to wilder parts, 

 and often ascending hills to make a lair in grass amongst trees, 

 where it generally selects a spot well shaded from the sun's rays. 

 It feeds on grass, especially the green grass near water, and various 

 wild fruits, of which it is very fond, but it also browses greatly 

 on shoots and leaves of trees. It drinks, I believe, daily, though 



