362 MR. R. SWINHOE ON THE MAMMALS OF FORMOSA. ([Dec. 9, 
they are said to occur in abundance; and small herds of them find 
their way to the lower ranges, 2000 feet and upwards in height. On 
nearly all the hills Iascended I found the prints of their feet, as well 
as dung; but they are so excessively shy that it is very difficult to 
get a glimpse of them. At a distance you may occasionally see them 
in small parties on some tangled grassy crag, whence they no sooner 
observe you than away they bound with short goat-like leaps, till a 
projecting rock snatches them from your vision. Their wildness is 
probably caused by the persecution they receive at the hands of the 
natives, who relish their flesh, which, however, I found tough and 
coarse. A supposed medicinal property in their blood, which is said 
to be efficacious in bad cases of bronchitis, tends, no doubt, to enhance 
the value of their capture. 
A live adult male was brought to me, with one leg wounded by a 
ball. The animal was very ferocious, stamping its foot at me and 
snorting through his nostrils. It drank a great deal, but ate only 
sparingly of the green food I supplied it with. I might have suc- 
ceeded in taming it; but it was in the hot season, and the wounded 
leg began to fester, and the poor animal seemed in such pain that I 
was obliged to have it killed. Its iris was yellowish chestnut ; its 
pupil black, with a horizontal yellowish-brown line running right 
through it. I do not know the particular cause of this peculiar 
appearance in the eyes of animals; but I have observed it pretty 
generally in all Goats. The high mandarin of the town begged the 
blood of this animal of me, and esteemed the gift a great favour. 
He had it spread, in the air, in small cakes, dried, and powdered, and 
then stowed it carefully away in his medicine-chest. 
The native name for this animal is Swan Yun, or Shan Yang, which 
may be taken to mean either Wild or Hill-Sheep or Wild or Hill- 
Goat. Hence my mistake in my first letters to the Secretary of this 
Society, when I stated that I was informed of the existence of a Wild 
Mountain-Sheep in the Island of Formosa. 
17. Cervus rarvanus, Blyth, J. A. 8. B. xxix. p. 90; Sclater, 
P. Z. S. 1860, p. 376, et 1862, p. 152, Pl. XVI. 
This species was established in 1858, by Mr. Blyth, from the 
skull of a buck that I sent him. The animal to which the skull 
had belonged had been kept, together with some others of the same 
breed, in a private menagerie at Amoy, whither Chinese junks from 
Formosa frequently bring these Deer for sale. I am not aware of 
any Spotted Deer occurring in the Province of Fuhkeen, to which 
Amoy belongs; and as the wealthier Chinese have a great partiality 
for Spotted Deer to adorn their parks, this species is the one most 
usually sought after in that district. Chinese poetry has frequent 
allusions to the ‘“‘ Red Deer with its snowy spots ;” and Chinese pic- 
tures, in almost every well-to-do house, exhibit grotesque though 
somewhat truthful representations of the antlered brethren. Besides 
the value attached to Deer as an object of ornament, their price is 
increased by the medicinal properties attributed to their horns. These 
appendages, cut off when freshly sprouting, are much prized by the 
