144 animals in menageries. 



The Axis Deer. 



Cervus Axis, Auct. Axis, Pliny, Buffon. Parrali, Hindostan. 



The elegant spotted markings of the Axis deer, spread 

 over all parts of the body, will immediately enable an 

 observer to distinguish it from the fallow deer. It be- 

 longs to a particular race of this family, chiefly found 

 in India; and the present, which is the best known ex- 

 ample of the group, is common in the plains and jungles 

 of India and the neighbouring islands. They have long 

 been great favourites in European menageries, where they 

 breed ; and, in favourable situations, are said to pro- 

 pagate freely in open parks. Timid and gentle in their 

 natural disposition, they are said to be particularly mild 

 and quiet in captivity. Authors attribute to this, and 

 to several other kinds of deer, such an extreme sen- 

 sibility both of taste and smell, that, although fond of 

 bread, they will not touch it if it has previously been 

 blown upon. The Axis very closely resembles the 

 fallow deer in size, form, and even in colour ; but the 

 buttocks of this is destitute of the broad white patch 

 which nearly covers that part in the fallow deer. 



The Black-tailed Deer. 



Cervus Macrotis, Say. Great-eared Deer, H. Smith, Cerf 

 mulet, Desmarest. Jumping Deer, Hudson s Bay Residents. 



We owe the first indication of this species, — peculiar, 

 as it would seem, to the plains of the Missouri and the 

 Columbia, — to the exploratory expedition of Lewis and 

 Clarke. Dr. Richardson could not obtain any specimens, 

 but fortunately met with one preserved in England, from 

 which Mr. Landseer has made an admirable figure. In- 

 habiting a climate congenial to our own, the present 

 seems an animal well worthy of general introduction. 

 Its manners, in one respect, are peculiar ; when roused, 

 it makes off by uninterrupted bounds, raising all its 

 feet from the ground at once, and vibrating its black- 

 tipt tail from side to side. From living on the eastern 



