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THE CHEETUL OR SPOTTED DEER. 

 By J. D. Inverarity. 

 ( With three Plates.) 

 (Read before the Bombay JS atural History Society^ on 2nd April, 1895.) 



The Cheetul is one of the most graceful of the deer tribe, and its 

 skin, beautifully marked with white spots, would make one think that 

 it would be easily seen in the jungle. This, however, is far from the 

 case, and when standing still it is about the most difficult animal to 

 distinguish. The white spots match exactly the flecks of sunlight 

 thrown through the leaves of the trees on the jungle in the midst of 

 which it stands. The Cheetul is fond of shade and water and is 

 chiefly found in localities where these abound. They go in herds ; 

 as many as 20 or 30 may be found together, though it is more usual 

 to find half-a-dozen or a dozen. They sometimes collect in large 

 numbers. The Cheetul has horns of the same number of points as 

 the Samber — 3 on each horn — and, measured on the outside curve, a 

 very good head will be 33 to 35 inches in length of horn, and in very 

 exceptional cases will even exceed this. A large number of Cheetul 

 however, never attain to horns of this size, and numbers of old deer 

 will have horns 2 feet and under in length. They are peculiar in 

 having no regular season for shedding their horns. I have seen them 

 with their horns hard, but the velv r et still on in the middle of May, 

 and at the same period have seen them with horns just beginning to 

 sprout, and at Christmas time I have observed the same. At all 

 seasons of the year many Cheetul will be found with horns unshed, and 

 in my opinion they do not shed their horns every year. They fre- 

 quently throw out an extra small tine or two, an inch or half-an-inch 

 in length at the junction of the brow antler with the horn. The longest 

 upper tine is invariably the outside one. 



The longest horns I have shot measure 34^ inches. These horns fork 

 at 17 inches, almost exactly half way. The horns of the Cheetul in 

 large heads fork much lower down the beam than is the case in 

 Samber heads, and the inner tine is, I think, invariably in such heads, 

 of short length. In fact the length of a long Cheetul horn is generally 

 made up by the extreme length of the outer upper tine. In smaller 

 heads the upper points are near the top of the horn, but even in them 

 the outer tine is the longest one. The skin of a spotted buck makes 

 a handsome mat. The late Mr. H. P. Le Mesurier, Agent of the 



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