1872.] MR. R. SWINHOE ON CHINESE MAMMALS. 813 



5. Notes on Chinese Mammalia observed near Ningpo. By 

 R. Swinhoe, F.Z.S., H.B.M. Consul at Ningpo. 

 [Keceived September 24, 1872.] 



We appear to have two species of Cervulus in our district : — one 

 ranging to the south, and seemingly the C. reevesi, J. E. Gray ; and 

 the other to the north, and abounding about the hills to the back 

 of Hangchow city. The former is much more rarely brought to 

 this market than the latter, and would appear to be very scarce within 

 our range : only two were brought in last winter, and both of these 

 females ; while of the latter numbers arrived, and of both sexes. The 

 Chinese do not distinguish them. 



The first example of Cervulus obtained had all the characters of a 

 C. reevesi of South China and Formosa about four months old, and 

 was the first Deer I procured here. I naturally supposed that it was of 

 the ordinary species, which the people here call the "venison" of their 

 hills. But what was my delight to have soon afterwards two bucks 

 brought in, with yellow heads, showing a species quite new to me. It 

 then remained a question whether the former was not the female of the 

 latter ; but I soon found this could not be, as the new species was more 

 porcine in form, had shorter body and legs, and a shorter and higher 

 head : but for a long time I could neither get the male of C. reevesi nor 

 the female of the new species. At last females of the latter flowed 

 in, and one spotted fawn. This last was a clencher. Years ago I 

 procured a specimen of the young of C. reevesi, which is now in the 

 British Museum, and it bore no signs of spots. The flat skin 

 of the young of C. vaginalis that I got in Hainan, now also in the 

 British Museum, had only a line of small yellowish spots on either 

 side of the dorsal ridge (see P. Z. S. 1869, p. 653, where it 

 is by mistake described as the skin of the fawn of Panolia eldi). 

 The spotted young of the present species I hailed with particular 

 delight, as I could not but believe that I had got hold of a veritable 

 Cervus ; but on close examination I found it to be no other than the 

 fawn of a Cervulus. I have jotted the following description of its 

 appearance : — 



Fawn about six weeks old. — Hair softer, longer, and more woolly 

 than in adult, especially about the cheeks, neck, and breast; coloured 

 like the female, with but very little black mottling about the back 

 and no black on the legs. Its sides have three sets of yellowish 

 spots : — one on each side of the back running in continuous series from 

 the middle of the hind neck to the tail, distant 1^ inch across the 

 back ; another from the shoulder, the spots at first coalescing, and 

 on the haunch scattering ; another set below this again, more inter- 

 rupted and scattered. The spots are of the size of a good-sized pea ; 

 but their arrangement on the two sides of the animal do not entirely 

 agree. 



I would ask leave to dedicate this species to the Secretary of this 

 Society, who has long devoted himself to the special study of this 

 group. 



