564 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. VIII, 
No. XV.—HORNS AND SKULL MEASUREMENTS, &c. 
I agree with Mr. Gilbert's remarks in your latest number of the journal that 
it would be of great assistance if some of our members, who must be acquainted 
with the Brow-Antlered Deer, would give us the benefit of some additional 
notes on the subject. In reckoning the points on the heads of stags, it was the 
custom, I believe, to count as a point anything on which a powder flask could 
be hung, If Mr. Gilbert bears this in mind, I do not think he will find any 
difficulty in determining the points of a ‘“‘Thamin’s” head any more than 
of the heads of its consin, the Swamp Deer (Cervus duvauceli). The 
Thamin’s head, with the exception of the peculiar direction of the Brow Antler, 
is not unlike the head of the Swamp Deer—that is, they generally have a small 
point on each brow antler and four or five “on top.” The beam at the top, 
where it gives out a number of points, is sometimes thickened, as in the Swamp 
Deer, but I think the horns are never palmated as is the case with the Fallow 
Deer (Cervus dema) found in Persia. As regards the last paragraph but one in 
Mr, Gilbert’s paper, 1 may mention that all the measurements quoted were 
carefully made by myself, 
With regard to Mr, Millard’s article on Tigers’ Skulls, there is or was in the 
collection of the Society the skull of a tiger presented by Mr. Shillingford, 
the measurements of which are precisely the same as Mr, Rowland Ward’s, w2., 
142/10", Mr, Cecil Gray in 1888 shot a tiger, I believe, over 10 feet; the 
skull measurements were 1311” x94." : for comparison I will put one of my 
own (a good-sized male 9’ 5”) 133” 93", and I think we may safely conclude 
that a skull over 14” must have belonged to an animal longer than 10 feet. 
The other day I was out stalking not far from here amongst some rocks. I 
came across a Muntjac (Rib-faced Deer) quite freshly killed by a panther ;_ its 
head and forequarters were mostly eaten, but what struck me as most singular 
was that the hairs on the rest of the body had been licked clean off with his 
tongue, just as if a razor had been used. It was quite easy to see where each 
sweep of the tongue had gone, and there on the ground were the hairs exactly 
as he had put them off histongue. This was new to me, for I never knew a 
panther or tiger ever to take any trouble about hair on an animal, certainly 
they do not seem to usually, in the case of a calf or buffalo; but I suppose 
the long and somewhat erect hair was too much for this gentleman’s palate. I 
picked up the other day a fine Swamp Deer’s head ; it has only ten points, but 
it isa good head. It had lain in the jungle some years, and I was going to send 
it to the collection in Bombay as an instance of deer eating their horns, for to 
my eye the chisel-shaped marks of the teeth are conclusive. In the jungle, 
however, I met an old friend (of about thirty years’ shikar experience) and he 
pooh-poohed it, saying “ Oh, rats and squirrels, even our prickly friend 
Hystri« leucwra.” It was a shock, but it was only too true ; the teeth-marks 
bear a great resemblance to those of rodents, 
W. ST. JOHN RICHARDSON, Caprain, 
Torna, 23rd March, 1894, 
