RARE STAG FROM NEPAL. 569 



coloration [of affinis] accurate information is wanting " (Game 

 Animals of India, p. 217, 1907). 



The precise nature of tlie relationship, however, between the 

 two species is by no means so easily and certainly settled as the 

 literature seems to indicate. 



In the British Museum there are three skins and a mounted 

 head referred to C. affinis. The head and one of the skins came 

 from Hodgson, the former being labelled " North of Bhotan," the 

 latter "North India " and bearing the date 1857. It is not cer- 

 tain, so far as I know, that these specimens are part of the material 

 that author described in 1851. Very possibly they are. If so, the 

 head is very much faded — which is likely enough considering that 

 it is exhibited in the gallery — because it is now a tolerably uniform 

 sandy fawn and not " earthy brown." It is noticeable, however, 

 that the lips and chin are fawn-coloured as in the example of 

 C. wallichii in the Gardens, and not white as in G. hanglu. The 

 skin, on the contrary, which has not been exhibited, agrees fairly 

 well with Hodgson's description, being for the most part dirty 

 bi'own and much darker both on the body and legs than is our 

 specimen of C. toallichii. The hair, moreover, is very coarse and is 

 of winter growth. The tail is cut away ; but the white disk is not 

 nearly so distinctly divided mesially as Hodgson's description would 

 lead us to believe, nor as is the case in C hanglu. Remnants of 

 a brown dividing line are, however, traceable. Again, although 

 the disk is smaller than in C. toallichii and is set off by a margin 

 of darker hairs, the bases of these adjacent dark hairs are white, 

 and the disk could be made to approach that of G. wallichii in 

 size if the brown tips of these hairs were removed or deprived of 

 pigment. But be it remembered, the bases of the hairs adjoining 

 the croup-disk in our example of G. toallichii are also white, so 

 that the disk of the latter is actually, with the hair undisturbed, 

 as large as, or larger than, the disk in Hodgson's affinis with the 

 hairs interfered with in the way supposed. In both specimens 

 the hairs are short and crisp. 



The other two skins named G. affinis in the British Museum 

 belonged to the late Dr. Blanford and are labelled " Sikkim, 

 L. Mandelli " *. The coat is in a better state of preservation 

 than in Hodgson's specimen above described. The general 

 colour is greyish brown, the hairs being pale basally, brownish 

 distally with a distinct subapical pale annulus, and a darker tip, 

 imparting a marked speckled appearance to the coat. The rump- 

 patch is small and white, but as in Hodgson's specimen, and in 

 Hodgson's pul)lished figure of G. affinis, it spreads on to the 

 posterior part of the croup in front of the base of the tail. In 

 one of the specimens it is very clearly defined all round by a 

 bordering of brown hairs unspeckled and considerably darker than 

 the back, but with white bases. In the other the hairs borderinf^ 



* Dr. Blanford once informed me that Mandelli's localities are untrustworthy. 



Proc. Zool. Soc— 1912, No. XXXVIII. 38 



