256 ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 
from him by Belon, and employed for it by all sub- 
sequent writers. Considerable numbers have been 
brought to England durmg the last century, and have 
thriven extremely well in the menageries, and occa- 
sionally in open parks, propagating freely in captivity. 
It is even stated, on the authority of Peter Collinson, 
that a mixed progeny has been obtamed between them 
and the Fallow-Deer. They are singularly mild and 
quiet in their disposition; but their gentleness is not 
unmixed with timidity, which often degenerates into 
suspicion. Pennant observes that their sense of smell 
is so acute that, although fond of bread, which they 
readily take from the hands of visiters, they will not 
touch it if it have been previously blown-upon; and 
M. F. Cuvier tells us that they will not even accept it, 
if it have been much handled. This extreme sensibility 
of smell and squeamishness of palate is not, however, 
we may remark, confined to the Axis, but is common 
to the whole of the Deer and of the Antelopes also. 
The Society’s specimen, which was a male, lived only 
for a short time at the Garden, having dislocated its 
neck, in an attempt, as was supposed, to escape from 
its enclosure. Jts horns had been previously partly 
broken off; and this deficiency is supplied in our figure 
from another individual. 
