1910.] CUTAXEOUS SCENT-GLANDS OF RUMINANTS. 967 



Genus PuDU Gray. 

 PuDi7 PUDU Mol. (TIio Chilian Pudu.) 



I have had no oppoitunity of examining Miiy material of this 

 genus beyond the dried skins in the collection of the Briti.sh 

 Museum. According to Flower (P. Z. S. 1875, p. 160), the 

 preorbital gland in P. pudu " is a distinct involution of thickened 

 integument .... with an aperture half an inch in length," and 

 the pedal glands are not represented by distinct pouches, " but 

 the skin in the depression between the toes on the dorsal surface 

 of all the feet is bai'e and evidently has a free sebaceous secre- 

 tion," representing, in the author's opinion, " the most rudimentary 

 or earliest stage of an interdigital gland " (see p. 978). So far as 

 it is possible to form an opinion from this description, it may be 

 inferi'ed that the interdigital depi-ession in this aberrant genus 

 closely, and it must be admitted surprisingly, resembles that of 

 such species as Cervics elaphus or C. eldi. 



Lydekker says both tarsal and metatarsal glands are absent 

 (' Deer of all Lands,' p. 307). 



The Classification of the Cervidce. 



From the accoinit just given of the cutaneous glands of the 

 Deer, it may be inferred that I think Sir Victor Brooke's classi- 

 fication of this family is correct, and Mr. Gordon Cameron's 

 incori-ect in the particulars in which it differs from Bi-ooke's, 

 It is important to refer to this matter, because in Mr. Lydekker's 

 volume on Deer, to which recent authors not unnaturally refer 

 as a standard work, Brooke's classification is set aside in favour 

 of Cameron's, which gives primary importance to the antlers as a 

 basis for the major divisions of the Cervidfe *. 



Briefly stated, Mr. Cameron classifies the Deer into four 

 groups: — (1) Eangifer, with antlers in both sexes; (2) Alee, with 

 antlers rising laterally on the sides of the skull ; (3) mostly 

 American Deer of small or medium size, termed collectively 

 Cariacits, with which are associated Cajyreolus and Elaphurus, a 

 section characterised by " forked " antlers Avithout a brow- tine ; 

 (4) all the Deer of the Old World, except those mentioned above, 

 including Cervus and Cervulus, which are distinguished by antlers 

 consisting of a "beam," usually itself branched with a basal 

 " brow-tine." These third and fourth sections are, however, 

 derivable from a common stock, fi'om which Ravgifer and Alee 

 are excluded as " strangers to one another and to all other groups 

 from the time when antlers first distinguished the family " 

 (The 'Field,' 1892, p. 703). 



Rangifer is considered to be a primitive type on account of the 

 occurrence of antlers in both sexes and their early appearance in 



* The ' Field,' 1892, pp. 625, 703, 741, 860. In tlie ' Field ' for 1910, pp. 154, 215 

 (July), this classification was upheld h.v Mr. Cameron in o])position to the views 

 advocated in this paper and summarised in the ' Field,' 1910, p. 97 (Julj-). 



63* 



