104 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



mal was an old Stag, so far advanced in life as to leave 

 some doubt whether the horns are not in that state of de- 

 crepitude which accompanies old age in the deer-kind. We 

 understood the size of the animal to be large, and the figure 

 shews that its fur was of a yellowish-brown gray all over 

 the body and head ; around the eyes, nose and mouth, there 

 is much whitish gray, the mark of age ; the lachrymary 

 slit, is long, and there is a black spot at the angle of the 

 mouth on the lower lip ; the ears are rather short, broad, 

 and pointed, whitish outside, and white with three black- 

 ish streaks, as in some antelopes, on the inside ; the tail 

 is very short and, together with a large disk, spreading not 

 below but above upon the croup, of a whitish colour ; the 

 hair shaggy and erect ; the legs are mostly fawn colour, the 

 hoofs black and pointed, and the fetlocks short and stout ; 

 the horns appear to be about one and a half the length 

 of the head, and of a whitish colour, with little indication 

 of pearls or rugosities. We owe to the politeness of 

 M. F. Cuvier, the means of taking a copy from the original. 



By the presence of the three small antlers, the short tail 

 and disk on the croup, this animal is placed with the true 

 Stags, but he is intermediate, the last of this group or the 

 first of the next : when the animal shall be better known, 

 this question may be finally settled. 



Fossil American Stag. (Cervus Americanus.) An im- 

 perfect skull and fragments of horns belonging to a large 

 fossil species of America is described, but the genus 

 not determined, by Mr. C. Wistar, in the Transactions of 

 the Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, vol. i, — 1818. 

 In Dr. Harlan's Fauna Americana, it is designated by the 

 above name, and considered as a congener of C. Cana- 

 densis. 



The Rusa Group. 



This group consisting of Stags entirely Asiatic, is distin- 

 guished from all other Deer, by having round horns with 



