314 MK. o. V. APLiN OS THE [Mar. 20, 



to a buck, with a nice head, and two does, which had been feeding 

 in a low green pajonale. They were then of a warm tawny, with 

 large and conspicuous light-coloured stern-marks. The peculiar 

 strong musky odour (rather like cat) was apparent after they had 

 cleared out. 



This species has no " brow "-tine. The ordinary head of a full- 

 grown buck possesses the " tray " and has the beam branched once, 

 six points in all on the head. I have, however, known a case in 

 which the tray branch of one antler had bifurcated and the head 

 had seven points. This head was carried by one of the Santa Elena 

 deer which (it is believed) died a natural death and was most 

 likely very old. The head approached even more nearly than usual 

 that form of the normal Eucervine type assumed by Schomburgk's 

 Deer (Cervus schomburgki), omitting of course the brow-tine, 

 which is not carried by the Gruazus. The bifurcations of the hind 

 branch of the beam in this specimen are much closer together than 

 in most other examples 1 liave examined (including one other from 

 Santa Elena), which resemble the figure in Admiral Kennedy's 

 ' Sportiog Sketches in South America,' p. 38. The does, at all 

 events in their youth, have a few whitish spots on each side of 

 the back. At a"pulperia near the south bank of the Eio Negro 

 I saw a tame fawn, a lovely little creature. 



The other deer of Uruguay are the Eed Deer or Ciervo {C.pa- 

 ludosus), " el Ciervo de los "pantanos " of Senor Bollo, now rare, 

 found in the monte of the Eio Uruguay, and, as Mr. C. J. P. Davie 

 of Montevideo tells me, also about Olinar, and in the jungles of the 

 Department of Salto ; and the little Swamp Deer, or Gua/Ai-vira, 

 a single-pronged-horned deer of the brocket type, now also_ rare 

 (probably Cervus simplicornis, Uliger) — vide ' Description Physique,' 

 p. 466. Mr. T. W. Burgess told me it used to be found on the 

 north bank of the Eio Negro about the Eincon de las Palmas, and 

 I believe it is also met with in the monte of the Eio Uruguay. 



Azaba's Opossum {Didelphys azarce). 



Azara's Opossum, or the " Comadreja" as it is always called, is 

 common and very fond of visiting estancias at night to rob hen- 

 roosts and pick up any flesh food lying about. Dogs often give 

 the alarm at night, but it is not easy to distinguish an opossum 

 among the rafters or the branches of a tree. I remember one 

 moonlight night coming on one suddenly as it sat on a low roof 

 close to the bouse, but it is needless to say he was not there wheii 

 1 returned with a pistol. Another night the dogs at the same 

 place stuck one up in a shed roof, which was at last discovered and 

 potted by the light of a match. The Comadreja has a peculiar 

 sour, sickening smell, emitted when it is irritated or frightened. 

 The smell is not strong, but very pertinacious, and to some people 

 it is more disgusting than that of a Skunk. 



The feet of the Comadreja are formed for cUmbing, and it runs 

 on the ground in an awkward tip-toe fashion. Yet it lives in a 

 iiearly treeless country, the river monte in South Soriano being 



