548 MR. P. L. SCLATER ON CERTAIN SPECIES OF DEER 
8. Cervus ELDI. (Plates XXXVIL. & XXXVIII.) 
“ Nondescript Deer,’ McClelland, Cale. J. N. H.i. p. 501; Eld, ibid. ii. p. 415. 
Cervus eldi, auct. anon. Caleutta Journal N. H. ii. p. 417 (1842); Beavan, P. Z. 8S. 1867, p. 759; 
Swinhoe, P. Z. 8. 1869, p. 6. 
(Rusa) frontalis, McClelland, ibid. iii. p. 401, tt. xiii. et xiv. 
Panolia eldii, Gray, Cat. of Ung. Fure. p. 202. 
eadii, Gray, Knowsl. Men. p. 61. 
acuticornis et P. platyceros, Gray, List of Mamm. B. M. pp. 180, 181,118; Horsf. Cat. Mamm. 
p- 187. 
Cervus dimorphe, Hodgs. J. A. S. B. xii. pt. 2, p. 897 (1844); Ann. N. H. xiv. p. 74. 
Rusa dimorphe, Gray, Knowsl. Men. p. 62; List of Ung. Fure. p. 209. 
This Deer was first discovered in the valley of Munipore in 1838 by Lieut. Eld; and 
its horns having been sent to Dr. M‘Clelland, were described by him in the first volume 
of the ‘Calcutta Journal of Natural History.’ In the second volume of the same 
journal will be found a full notice of the habits and localities of the animal by Lieut. 
Eld, to which is appended a suggestion (communicated to the Editor by the corre- 
spondent who forwarded Lieut. Eld’s paper) that it should be called Cervus eldi. The 
Editor, however, thinks this suggestion “ premature,” and in the third volume of the 
same journal describes the animal as Cervus frontalis. Under these circumstances it is 
somewhat difficult to decide what should be its proper appellation. The term “ e/di” 
was the first published; but we do not know who is the authority for it. Dr. M‘Clel- 
land, the Editor of the Journal, who used it, clearly repudiated it subsequently in 
favour of his own name “ frontalis.” On the whole, however, it seems most just to 
retain the name “e/di,” it being absolutely the first published specific appellation for 
this Deer. 
Lieut. Beavan has lately contributed to the Society’s Proceedings (1867, p. 759) a very 
complete account of the habits and range of this Deer; and Mr. Swinhoe has recorded 
its occurrence in Hainan. It is probably found all through the Burmese countries in 
suitable localities—that is, in the low watery swamps and jungles that border the large 
rivers of those countries. 
It now seems to be generally agreed that Hodgson’s Cervus dimorphe, of which the 
type is in the British Museum, is a young male Cervus eldi; but if so, he was probably 
deceived as to the locality of his specimen, which he gives as the Sal forest of the 
Nepalese Morung'. 
Our first and only specimen of this Deer was a young male presented to the Society 
by Mr. Grote, and brought home to England by Mr. C. Bartlett, along with a collection 
of other Indian animals, in August 1867. Mr. Grote had received it when quite a 
fawn from Col. Phayre, the Governor of British Burmah. The principal figure in 
Pl. XXXVII. represents this individual as he appeared when commencing to grow his 
' Of. Jerdon, Mamm. of Ind. p. 256, and Swinhoe, P. Z. §. 1869, p. 658. 
