June 8, 1882] 



NATURE 



US 



safely imported some years ago, but it is only a few 

 months since that Dr. Caton, after several previous un- 

 successful attempts, succeeded in supplementing his gift 

 by transmitting to England an adult female. There is 

 now therefore for the first time some prospect that the 

 Mule Deer may be added to the list of acclimatised 

 species propagating its young in this country. 



21. The Chilian Deer {Furcifer chiknsis).— The Chilian 

 Deer also belongs to the American group of the Cervids, 

 but has some special peculiarities, and together with an 

 allied form— the Andean Deer {Furcifer antisieiisis) — 

 constitutes a small and distinct section of the American 

 Deer, remarkable for the simple character of the bifurcated 

 antlers. 



The Chilian Deer is generally known to the natives of 

 Chili as the " Guemul," and, though but slightly devia- 

 ting from the ordinary deer in general appearance, has 

 been strangely misunderstood by some of the older 

 authors. Molina, in his work [on the Natural History of 



Chili, classed it as a horse (!) under the name Equus 

 bisiileus, while Hamilton Smith has referred it to the 

 Llamas, and other authors to the Camels ! Gay, in his 

 "Fauna Chilena," published in 1847, first gave a clear 

 account of this animal, and figured the female in the 

 accompanying "Atlas," from a specimen in the Museum 

 of Santiago. Gay tells us it is rare in Chili, being only 

 met with in the Cordilleras of the southern provinces. Mr. 

 E. C. Reed, who sent a skin and skull of the "Huemul" 

 for exhibition before the Zoological Society in 1S75, 1 tells 

 us that several specimens of it have of late years been 

 procured by the Chilian vessels engaged in exploring the 

 Chonos Archipelago, and that it extends throughout 

 Patagonia down to Sandy Point, in the Straits of 

 Magellan. 



The Chilian Deer is of about the size of a large roe- 

 deer, but much stouter and thicker in its limbs. The 

 antlers of the male, as will be seen by the illustration 

 (Fig. 21), are very simple in character, consisting of a 



-The Radiated Gr 



well-developed beam provided with a single anterior snag 

 or brow antler, which curves rapidly upwards, and 

 attains nearly an equal length with the beam itself. 



The example of this rare deer in the Zoological 

 Society's collection was received from the Jardin d'Ac- 

 climatation of Paris in December last, and is believed to 

 be the only individual of the species ever brought alive to 

 Europe. 



22. The Radiated Ground-Cuckoo {Carpococcyx radia- 

 tits).— To the minds of most people the name cuckoo con- 

 veys only the idea of a tree-loving bird of strong flight, that 

 utters a well-known cry and drops its eggs in other birds' 

 nests. But the Cuckoo family (Cuculidie) of naturalists 

 is an extensive group, containing many birds which not 

 only have neither cuckoo-like call nor parasitic habits, 

 but differ greatly from our familiar summer visitor both 

 in structure and in manner of life. No better instance 

 can be given of this truth than the very remarkable bird 

 which we now figure (Fig. 23) from an example living in 

 the Zoological Society's "Insect House." Though a 



"cuckoo " in all the essential points of its conformation, 

 it is a purely terrestrial bird with a pair of long and 

 strong legs, and in its general gait and actions much more 

 nearly resembles a pheasant or a rail than the ordinary 

 cuckoo of this country, with which it claims relationship. 



The Radiated Ground-Cuckoo was first made known to 

 science in 1832, by Temminck, who described and figured 

 it in one of the livraisons of his " Planches Coloriees," 

 published in that year from a specimen in the Leyden 

 Museum. This, he tells us, was received from M. Diard, 

 a well-known Dutch collector, who had obtained it at the 

 settlement of Pontianak, in Western Borneo. A ticket 

 attached to the foot of the bird called attention to its 

 singular structure and habits, and contained the remark 

 that it differs from the Malkoha Cuckoos {Phanicophai) 

 also found in the same district, in keeping constantly on 

 the ground in search of worms, and in avoiding danger 

 by rapid running, whereas the Malkohas are always met 

 with flying about amongst the trees in search, of insects. 



1 See Proc. Zool. Sac, 1875, p. 44. 



