18/2.] MR. R. SWINHOE ON CHINESE MAMMALS. 815 



The females, of which I send two adult skins, in colour resemble 

 the males, but have a black horseshoe-shaped patch on the forehead, 

 the ends of the shoe running down the forehead, and overrunning the 

 dark fleshy slit of the supraorbital furrow. In one the fore belly is 

 rather dark. 



The female of this new species might easily be confounded with 

 that of C. reevesi ; but the brighter colour of the latter, and her pure 

 white chin and throat, will serve as distinguishing characters for the 

 skin. In life, too, the latter stands distinct in displaying a longer body 

 and limbs, has longer ears, and generally a lighter and more Antelope- 

 like form, instead of the more porcine appearance of the new species. 



Sclater's Muntjac is generally brought into this city alive, but 

 nearly always more or less mangled about the feet, from the traps 

 employed by the natives to catch them. The weather is also very 

 cold at the time, and I know of no one here succeeding in keeping 

 them alive. I bought several during the winter, but they all died 

 within a few days of their captivity. They are extremely shy and 

 timid, and cannot be induced to eat. We have also been very un- 

 successful in rearing the spotted young. 



On the mountain-ranges that separate this Province of Chekiang 

 from the neighbouring Province of Ganhwuy a spotted Deer is found 

 of about the size of the Axis, and, I suppose, the continental ana- 

 logue of the Formosan C.pseudaxis (taivanus). The first intimation 

 I received of its existence was in having a pair of horn-buds on a bit 

 of frontlet brought me by a native, for which he wanted £5, the 

 velvetty budding being a valuable Chinese medicine. The hair on 

 the short pedicles was yellowish red, with a pure white border round 

 the buds. Pere Heude, of the Society of Jesuits at Sikawei, near 

 Shanghai, who travels about the country collecting natural-history 

 specimens for a museum they are about to erect in their establish- 

 ment, told me that he also knew of its existence, and was further 

 informed that Fokien hunters came yearly to Ganhwuy to hunt the 

 bucks for their velvet. I have heard also from sportsmen at Shang- 

 hai that they have occasionally seen antlered Deer when on the hills 

 at some distances from Shanghai ; but up to the present I have 

 sought the spotted Deer in vain. 



While on the subject of Deer it would be as well to add what 

 further information I have acquired about the Shanghai River-Deer, 



Hydropotes tnermis, Swinhoe. 



This Deer is yearly becoming more numerous. It used to be con- 

 fined chiefly to the marshy neighbourhood of Chinkiang, but is now 

 found in moist grounds at no great distance from Shanghai. It is 

 brought in large numbers to the Shanghai market during the whiter 

 months ; and as many as thirty may be seen hanging up for sale at 

 the same time. There can be no doubt of its great prolificness. The 

 sportsmen in Shanghai all confirm the statement that I reported 

 before, that the doe has many young at a birth. Mr. H. B. Russell, 

 in the Imperial Customs at Chinkiang (son of Dr. Russell of the 



