1873.] MR. R. SWINHOE ON CHINESE DEER. 5/3 



fang was submitted to the microscope ; and no muscular fibre could 

 be detected. The gum round the tooth was then examined, but 

 with similar result ; the gum was no other than ordinary. The 

 movement of the tooth moves the surrounding gum, which firmly 

 clasps it ; but neither the gums nor the lips have any power to move 

 the teeth. The angle subtended by the movement backward and 

 forward of each tooth we guessed to be between 10° and 15°. Dr. 

 Little had not had time to examine his specimen, but suggested 

 that the action in the tooth might be guided by erectile tissue, which 

 would be more developed at the rutting-season, and give a firmer 

 hold to the tooth when required for fighting-purposes. I conferred 

 with Dr. Jamiesou on this suggestion; and he writes, "I am quite 

 sure that in the section we placed under the microscope the other day 

 we saw nothing answering to the dense network of capillaries, and to 

 the plexus of epithelium-lined trabeculse divided by muscular fasci- 

 culi, which go to make up an erectile tissue ? When is the rutting- 

 time ? If the movable tusks are secondary sexual characteristics, we 

 ought then to find the vessels in a more developed state, and more 

 favourable for examination." But these Deer are only procurable 

 in winter, and the rutting-time is not then ; so the question cannot 

 just now be satisfactorily settled. The tooth pushes forward in its 

 growth, and the cavity left behind the fang closes after it, as will be 

 seen in the woodcuts given in Sir Victor Brooke's paper on Hydro- 

 potes (P.Z. S. 1872, p. 522), until the end of the third year, when the 

 animal is full-grown and the tooth fully developed ; it is then, and 

 only then, found to show the loose character above referred to. I 

 was pleased to find an adult male in an aviary belonging to a gentle- 

 man here. He had had the animal many years, and refused to 

 sell it. This creature I found, to my surprise, carried its tusks 

 lying back against the long tuft of hair on each side of its under 

 jaw. Mr. Vrard declared that the tusks had always been in that 

 position, and that he had never seen the animal move them. In 

 death they certainly are always vertical ; and I suspect this animal 

 must have had an accident which forced them into their present 

 position. It seemed very tame, and allowed the birds to perch on 

 its back without being disturbed. I watched in vain to see it move 

 its tusks ; and it was not easy to get hold of it for the purpose of 

 handling them. The Hydropotes, I note, has no glandular patch 

 on the tarsus. A specimen of its skull (adult male) that I possess 

 has an extra first premolar on each side of the upper jaw ; that on 

 the right side is situated inwards alongside of the normal tooth ; 

 that on the left is wedged angularly between the first and second 

 premolars. 



I will now pass on to describe a very fine new species of Deer 

 which I have lately acquired from the neighbouring country, and 

 which in size will vie with most of the known species. 



The antlered Deer of the mountains south of the Yangtse. 



In writing on Deer from Ningpo- (see P. Z. S. 1872, p. 815) 

 I mentioned to you that a Chinese hunter from the Fychow 



