ORDER RUMINANTIA. 117 



two species of ruminants with spots, inhabiting the East, 

 the Axis and the Jorcos. It appears probable that by 

 the first they understood the same animal as modern 

 Zoologists; but the second is more doubtful. The most 

 obvious application would have been to the Hog-deer of 

 the moderns, if it were not improbable that the trifling dis- 

 tinctions between this and the Axis had been noticed by 

 the ancients : we may therefore suspect that by the Jorkos 

 they understood the Jasin or Antelope, which, although 

 not exactly spotted, is often agreeably diversified with ful- 

 vous black and white ; and that this supposition is not quite 

 fanciful, appears from the Institutes of Menu, where the 

 Jasi or Antelope is repeatedly mentioned as spotted, which 

 phrase is used also in other Indoo codes, and the animal 

 itself portrayed. 



The Spotted Axis. (Cervus Axis.) This species nearly 

 resembles the Fallow-deer, but is readily distinguished 

 from it by the round horns without a terminal palm ; they 

 stand nearly vertically, with a slight bend forwards, the 

 points approaching each other ; at the base an antler arises 

 from the front, and is pointed forwards ; another half way 

 up the beam on the internal side is turned to the rear. 

 There appears no suborbital opening, and, as we have said, 

 the canines are wanting in the jaw ; the muzzle is black. 

 These characters are constant ; but to distinguish the female 

 from the doe of Fallow-deer, or the males, when destitute 

 of horns, from each other, is more difficult. 



From the accurate comparisons of M. F. Cuvier, it re- 

 sults that both have the back, shoulders, flanks, and thighs, 

 of a fulvous colour, spotted with white. On the buttocks 

 of both and along the sides there is a white line, but pure 

 in the Axis, more yellowish in the Fallow-deer ; a dark- 

 brown line runs along the back of both, but darkest in the 

 Axis, and covered with white spots ; while in the Fallow- 

 deer the line is paler, and the spots range only along its 



