150 DR. P, L. SCLATER ON THE DEER OF FORMOSA. [May 13, 



Dr. Glinther, which I have stuffed, as in the dry specimens the re- 

 mains of the rings on the body may be better observed than when 

 preserved in spirits. I have been unable to find any description in 

 Dumeril and Bibron of the large Furina of which I suppose the F. 

 textilis to be the young ; and, not being in possession of the British 

 Museum Catalogue, I do not know whether this Snake has been de- 

 scribed at all. 



7. Note on the Deer of Formosa. By P. L. Sclater, M.A., 

 Ph.D., F.R.S., Secretary to the Society. 



(Plates XVI., XVIL) 



In some remarks on the Japanese Deer received by the Society in 

 1860, which I made before the meeting of this Society in the month 

 of November of that year*, I gave some reasons for considering Cer- 

 vus sika of the 'Fauna Japonica,' Cervus pseudaxis of the French 

 naturalists, and Dr. Gray's Rusa japonica as probably synonyms of 

 the same species. In a communication made to the Society in the 

 following year. Dr. Gray ultimately admits that his Busa japonica is 

 probably the same as Cervus sika, " though it differs so much from the 

 figure and description of that animal in the ' Fauna Japonica'f ;" and 

 I believe there is now little doubt upon this point. Mr. "Westerman, 

 the Director of the Gardens of the Zoological Society of Amsterdam, 

 to whom we parted with a pair of these Japanese Deer in 1861, has 

 informed me that he was previously well acquainted with the species, 

 and that it is certainly identical with the type of Cervus sika in the 

 Leyden Museum. Since the arrival of the first example of this Deer 

 (the pair presented to the Society by Mr. Wilks, July 21, 1860), we 

 have received several others. In September, 1861, a female arrived 

 from our Corresponding Member, Mr. Blyth of Calcutta, being one 

 of the examples he has commented upon in the ' Journal of the 

 Asiatic Society of Bengal' (xxx. p. 90) ; and in June of the same 

 ■year we purchased a pair of these animals, the male of which was 

 subsequently parted with to Mr. Westerman. On the 3 1 st of August, 

 1861, the female presented by Mr. Wilks produced a male calf; and 

 there seems every probability of this Deer doing well in this country. 



With regard, however, to the Formosan Deer {Cervus taevanus or 

 taiouanus), I was certainly wrong in supposing it to be the same as 

 the Japanese Cervus sika. Knowing nothing about it, except from 

 Mr. Blyth' s description, I supposed that he who created the species 

 was to be trusted when he destroyed it. I therefore put faith in 

 what Mr. Blyth wrote in a letter to me (dated July 4th, 1860), that 

 he was then " satisfied" that the Formosan and Japanese Deer were 

 of " one and the same species." It appears, however, from what Mr. 

 Swinhoe says (see P. Z. S. 1860, p. 235), that all the living Deer 



* See P. Z. S. 1860, p. 375. 

 t P. Z. S. 1861, p. 238. 



