SMALL DEER. 531 
The second of our small deer is truly a deer, having solid bony 
antlers, This is Cervulus aureus, the “ barking deer.” I have 
chosen the two most descriptive of its names from amongst many 
inappropriate or barbarous. 
Tt is Cervulus, a little deer ; itis aureus, or golden (a very fine 
chestnut in good specimens); and it does bark. just like a little dog, 
The antlers are small and have but two points as a rule, though a 
third, or even fourth, subordinate point may be occasionally met with, 
The main “ beam” stands up straight from the burr for about three= 
fifths of its length ; then curves lightly backward, and ends in one 
point imperfectly hooked. At its base is a tiny brow-antler. 
The burr rests upon a bony stalk, which in Indian specimens is 
commonly as long as the antler, or longer. I have seen a Javan 
collection in which the antlers were far finer than this ; but the species 
are now considered identical. The animal is lower on its legs than the 
four-horned Antelope, and perhaps a little less in weight ; but I 
have no weights before me. Itis more thick-set, indeed, and puts 
on more fat. The colour, as I have said above, isa fine chestnut ; 
the lower parts white or whitish, especially under the tail, which 
it has a way of cocking up in flight, as a rabbit does his “ fud,” and 
probably for the same reason—as a “ danger signal.” 
It is an inhabitant of the thickest thickets, such as are, with us, 
chiefly on the higher hills ; and into these it dives, as a rabbit into 
furze, when it finds itself driven out by force, or surprised at forage. 
Another point in the colour is the presence, in this very different 
animal, of foot-markings, very like those of our last beast and of 
the Nilghai. I shall probably have more to say about this hereafter. 
The barking deer is pretty monogamous, often solitary, and never 
found in anything worth calling herds. I should say seldom four are 
together. For, although its period of gestation is reported the same as 
that of the four-horned Antelope (six months), it seems seldom to pro- 
duce twins. It seems, too, to breed rather later in this region, as I 
have found pregnant females well into the hot weather on the ghats. 
There is one curious point about this deer, marking it off to any eye 
from the true Cervide and associating it with our next (though very 
different) beast. This is the presence in bucks of long, sharp, upper 
canine teeth, capable of inflicting a very severe wound on a rival, 
