816 MR. R. SWINHOK ON CHINESE MAMMALS. [Nov. 5, 



'Times'), kindly undertook to question on this subject a friend of his 

 there, who had had much experience in the pursuit of this Deer. 

 He writes me : — " The gentleman I referred to tells me he has fre- 

 quently found as many as four, five, and six young ones in a Deer; and 

 you may be quite certain this information is correct." A gentleman at 

 Chinkiang kept a pair alive running about in an unused compound 

 for some time, but they never bred ; but Pere Armand David, who 

 was here a few days back, assured me that a French friend of his at 

 Shanghai had a pair of adults with two fawns, all alive and well. 

 M. David has sent skins and skeletons to the Museum at the Jardin 

 des Plantes. The tusks in the adult male grow to a large size, 

 measuring fully two inches in length, and are, curiously enough, quite 

 loose in their sockets, moving forwards and far backwards, and even 

 a little sidewards. A long tuft of hair from the lower lip, immedi- 

 ately behind the tusk, forms a cushion for it to rest against ; but the 

 tooth is pressed backwards beyond this, and becomes almost hidden 

 by the hair of the chin. The tusks are kept more frequently in this 

 depressed state than erect in fang-form. The use of these tusks, 

 people here declare, is for digging up roots to feed on ; but as they 

 are only possessed by the male, it is more probable that their inten- 

 tion is for offence and defence. The muscular power the animal has 

 over them must give the teeth extra power and direction in use, as 

 well as afford a means of protecting them, by admitting of their being 

 withdrawn under cover of the bristly hair. Nevertheless they are 

 ve*ry frequently found chipped or broken. The Chinese extract the 

 tusks to make ornaments of. Finding them so often missing, and 

 from the fact of their looseness when present, I was inclined to think 

 that they were deciduous, like the antlers in the horned species, to 

 which they correspond ; but an examination of the base of an ex- 

 tracted tusk showed that such could not he. I am sending home a 

 skeleton and two skins. I procured two fine bucks from Chinkiang 

 during last winter ; and as in my first description of this animal I 

 described from the skin of an animal only two-thirds grown, I may 

 be allowed to add the measurements of an adult. 



Adult Male. 



Muzzle to root of tail 3 ft. 

 Tail, root to tip of terminal hairs 4 in. 

 Height at shoulders 1 ft. 10 in., at rump 2 ft. 10 in. 

 Girth of neck 1 1| in., behind shoulders 1 ft. 9 in., before thighs 

 1 ft. 9 in. 



Length of head 7| in. 



Upper lip, outer surface to rictus augle, 2 in. 



Tusk 2 in., its breadth '4r> ; quite loose. 



Muzzle, tip to fore angle of eye 3i in. 



Eye, from angle to angle, - 85. 



Lachrymal-fosse skin *35. 



Ear : long 4-7 ; its greatest breadth 2| ; between ears 1 -7. 



Height of head behind eye 4. 



Girth of muzzle 7 in., of head behind eye 11|. 



