67 



They were noticed in the American Deer by Buffon. who sj.ieaks 

 of them as surrounding " un lichen noirdtre long de neuf Ugnes , fort 

 etroit, entour4 par des poils hlancs et longs, qui paroissoient former 

 aussi line sorte de brosse;" and according to M. F. Cm'ier, who ob- 

 served them in the Wapiti, they surround a narrow long horny sub- 

 stance, which is the appearance of the part in the dry state ; but 

 Col. Hamilton Smith, in his description of the same species, 

 takes a different view of the structure with which they are connect- 

 ed, which he states to be "a gland imbedded in hair secreting an 

 unctuous fluid." That the tufts really cover a glandular apparatus 

 is rendered probable by the circumstance that in the living animal 

 they generally assume a conical form as though imbued with some 

 oily secretion; and the specimens preserved in spirit which Mr. Gray 

 has examined, seem to justify this opinion ; but he has had no op- 

 portunity, since his observations upon the subject were made, of 

 confirming the fact by anatomical examination. They are generally 

 of a paler colour than the rest of the hair upon the legs ; and in 

 some species, the Cervtis Virginianus for instance, they are of a pure 

 white which renders them very conspicuous. 



To the existence of these tufts as a generic character common to 

 all the Deer, Mr. Gray states that, among the species which he has 

 had an opportunity of examining, he has met with only one excep- 

 tion, that of the Muntjac before mentioned ; and he thinks that if this 

 animal should prove to be really destitute of the appendages in ques- 

 tion, it would afford an additional motive, combined with the perma- 

 nence of its horns and some other characters, for excluding it from 

 the genus Cervus. But these tufts have also another value, that of 

 affording by the differences in their number and position three ob- 

 vious sectional divisions, which have an evident advantage over those 

 derived from the form of the horns and other characters of a sexual 

 and temporary nature, in being permanent at all ages and common 

 to both sexes. These sections Mr. Gray arranges as follows : 



The first has a pencil of hairs seated on the outer side of the hinder 

 part of the metatarsus, about one thii'd of the distance from the 

 caloaneum towards the hoofs. This section includes Cerv. Elaphus, 

 Canadensis, Axis, porcinus, Hippelaphus, Dama and its varieties, and 

 niger, as well as the Stag in the Museum of the Society, called the 

 greater Muntjac, Cerv. Tunjuc, Vig. and Horsf., in the Catalogue 

 for 1829, p. 17, No. 303, which Mr. Gray believes to be a species 

 of the Rusan group of Col. H. Smith with deformed horns. In 

 Cerv. Canadensis, and perhaps also in some other species, Mr. Gray 

 states that there is a large pad of close erect hairs on the hinder 

 edge of the metatarsus, commencing with this tuft. 



In the second section there exist two tufts of hair, one seated on 

 the outer side of the hinder part of the metatarsus, about two thirds 

 of the distance from the calcanemn to the hoof ; and the other on the 

 inner side of the hock or heel. This structure occurs in the Virgi- 

 nian Deer, Cerv. Virginianus, and in its variety Cerv. Mexicanus, as 

 well as in an allied species of which the female exists in the So- 

 ciety's Museum. The internal pencil is very distinct in the Virgi- 



