RARE STAG FROM NEPAL. 567 



yellowish or dirty-white right and left moieties of this area do 

 not meet in front of the base of that organ but are separated by 

 a median brown band, continuous with the colour of the back ; 

 this band may or may not run along the middle of the tail 

 itself. Thus the caudal disk is small, smaller in fact than in 

 most Deer of the Elaphine group. Nevertheless it is very 

 conspicuous by reason of the blackish setting formed by the 

 adjacent hairs of the hind quarters. So far as my experience of 

 two specimens goes, this caudal disk does not vary appreciably 

 with the season, but remains fairly constant in extent, shape and 

 distinctness. Nor does it alter with age, judging from the fact 

 that in a very old animal with worn teeth, which was recently 

 shot in the Gardens for senile decay, the disk was exactly like 

 that of a younger animal in perfect condition now on exhibition. 

 No doubt, however, it exhibits a certain amount of individual 

 variation. It will thus be seen that C. hanglu may be at once 

 distinguished from G. loallichii by its totally dissimilar caudal 

 disk *. 



It is also darker in colour, being very decidedly brown but 

 fading to a rather paler hue on the flanks, which are lighter than 

 the legs, the latter being as brown as the back both externally 

 and internally. The coat,, moreover, is markedly speckled owing 

 to the presence of a subapical pale annulus on the individual 

 hairs. 



Another very noticeable distinction between all the specimens 

 of C. hanglu and the one example of C 'wcdlichii tliat I liave seen 

 is in the colour of the hairs about the mouth. The chin and 

 lower lip of G. hanglu are white and the upper lip up to the 

 nostrils is cream or dirty-white, so that the muzzle is rather 

 sharply contrasted in colour with the browner hue of the rest of 

 the face. Light rings round the eyes, too, are very marked. 

 They are not so marked in G. wallichii and, as has been stated, 

 the muzzle and chin are decidedly fawn-coloured and darker than 

 the rest of the face at least in the winter coat. 



Gervus affinis Hodgson was based upon the skull and antlers 

 of a Stag wrongly alleged to have come fiom the Sal forests in 

 Nepal (J. A. S. Bengal, x. pt. 2, pp. 721-724, pi., 1841). The 

 brow tine was long, projected forwards over the face and was 

 straight or had a sharply upturned tip. The bez was subequal 

 and subparallel to it and also had an uptiu-ned tip, the distance 

 between their points of origin being 2i inches. Above the bez 

 the beam reclined backwards and outwards for a short distance, 

 then bent sharply upwards below the origin of the trez and ended 

 in a pair of subequal terminal tines. This sharp upward bend of 



* Blytli, who believed the Kashmir Stag and C. wallichii to he specificalb' the 

 same, explained awaj' this difference by assuming that the caudal disk in the figure 

 of the type of C. viallicliii was exaggerated (J. A. S. Bengal, xxx. p. 188, 1861). 



