CERVUS MUNTJAK. 



forward, which, with the dehcacy of the legs, increases the sprightly appearance of 

 our animal. The texture of the hairs is firm ; they are rigid, bristly, and closely 

 applied to the body, so that the appearance of the Kidang is generally sleek. A 

 naked horny point serves to attach them to the skin, as in the European Roe ; this 

 is perfectly white ; towards the extremity the tint has different shades and modifi- 

 cations, agreeably to the external colour. The hairs are arranged in close contact, 

 but have no woolly appendage at the base, and thus constitute a covering adapted 

 to the climate ; they are lengthened on some parts, and their distribution affords 

 various ornamental tufts to our animal; one of the most conspicuous of these is 

 along the course of the pedestals of the horns, and at their termination. 



The colour of the Cervus Muntjak varies in different periods of the year, and 

 in different countries. The female also, at least in Java, is darker than the male. 

 The reddish brown tint of the male, in the female is diversified with gray. This is 

 the colour of the Indian Roe described by AUamand ; and while our animal agrees 

 with that in the structure of the horns, in the size and disposition of the lacrymal 

 furrows, and in all the essential characters, it cannot be considered as specifically 

 different, in consequence of a slight modification of colour. The drawing already 

 mentioned from the collections of Dr. Hamilton, representing the head of the Rib- 

 faced Deer, agrees in the reddish brown tint with the Javanese animal ; but the 

 lines passing along the face and horns are dark brown instead of black. The prepa- 

 ration in the Museum of Mr. Brookes has the same tint ; but the form of the horns, 

 and the ribs of the face, agree strikingly with our animal. As far as I have been 

 able to determine from the specimens, figures, and from descriptions, I consider the 

 Chevreuil des Indes of Allamand, the Rib-faced Deer of Pennant and Hamilton, 

 and the Kidang, or Kijang, of the Indian Islands, as belonging to the same species, 

 the Cervus Muntjak of Zimmerman. 



Although the Cervus Muntjak resembles the Cervus Capreolus, or Roe, in 

 many points, yet in determining its situation in a natural series, it is necessary to 

 take a general view of all the species of Cervus hitherto discovered : it will then 

 appear, that in several essential characters our animal differs from the Roe, and 

 resembles the Cervus Elaphus. Among the characters, from which the species of 

 Cervus have been arranged into groups, the elevation of the horns on pedestals is 

 one ; but it does not associate the species in a natural manner. This character occurs 

 in the Cervus Capreolus, in the Cervus Pygargus, in several American species of 

 Deer resembling the Roe, to which the Cervus subulatus of Mr. Brookes belongs, 

 and in the Cervus Muntjak. But this character is of a relative nature; and a pedestal 



