118 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal [April, 1914. 



It will be seen that in the first instance Hodgson jumped 

 to the conclusion that in his specimen of stag's skull and 

 horns which he obtained in the Nepal Tarai, he had dis- 

 covered a stag which corresponded with the true Oervus elaphus 

 of Europe, and he promptly gave it the name of " Cervus 

 a/finis." Later on he discovered his error, but he was still 

 keen to establish the affinity of the Asian and European stags, 

 and when he received the ' abundant * spoils, through his 

 friend Dr. Campbell and the Sikkim Vakil in 1851 at Darjiling, 

 he came to the conclusion that the horns and skull of the stag 

 which he had seen when in Nepal was a similar " Shou "to 

 that the spoils of which had just come to his hand through Sik- 

 kim from Tibet. Hodgson did not see, or describe, the skin of 

 the Shou which he obtained in the Nepal Tarai ; and the only 

 Shou skins he ever seems to have described are those with a 

 small white caudal disk, and a dark mesial line running down 



Antlers of Cervus wallichii. 



from the back along the top of the tail. Hodgson indeed in his 

 earlier days of natural history work, to quote his own words, 

 appears to have relied on " the number and position of the 

 antlers especially the inferior ones" in distinguishing the 

 several species of Cervus — more than other distinguishing 

 characteristics. 



The picture which he gives of his Shou the stag of 

 the Saul forest, in connection with his note No. 117 of the 

 B.A.S. Journal, 1841 , and the description of the horns of the 

 Shou or Tibetan stag (Cervus affinis) in his note No. 5 of 1851, 

 will I think be found on comparison to apply with equal ex- 

 actitude to a specimen in my possession of the Shou now known 

 to naturalists as Cervus wallichii (text-figure 1), and to that ol 

 the veritable Cervus wallichii sent home to the London Zoologi- 

 cal Gardens from Nepal and described by Mr. Pocock in 1912. 

 The left antler in that case is the normal one. I think, there- 

 fore, that it is quite possible that the skull and horns which 



