338 THE DEER OF AMERICA. 



should have been well justified in dropping the specific name of 

 Cervus Canadensis and returning to that of Cervus elajjhus. 



THE ACAPULCO DEER AND THE CEYLON DEER. 



The similarity in size, form, color, and habits of our little Aca- 

 pulco Deer and the Ceylon Deer in my grounds, is so great, that 

 no naturalist would be inclined to declare them specifically differ- 

 ent, but for the absence of the metatarsal gland in the one, while 

 it is very distinctly present in the other (see illustration, ante, 

 p. 258). Even the antlers have a striking similarity, although I 

 have but one set grown on the adult Acapulco Deer, and two sets 

 grown on the Ceylon buck in my grounds, and those grown in 

 1874 differ in an important particular from those grown on the 

 same animal in 1878, in that the latter showed a very long 

 anterior prong in proportion to the length of the beam, while on 

 the former it is but a snag, although still longer than the snag 

 on the Acapulco deer. In both there is a decided tendency to 

 flatten towards the end of the beam, but the foreign deer has the 

 longest and slimmest beam. Still it would be necessary to com- 

 pare a much larger number than I have been able to do, before 

 we can pronounce definitely as to positive distinctions, if there 

 really be any. 



At last we are brought face to face with the question whether 

 the entire absence of the metatarsal gland on one, and its distinct 

 presence on the other, is sufficient to establish a specific differ- 

 ence. For myself I am prepared to recognize such difference. 

 I am undoubtedly strengthened in this conclusion from the fact 

 that they come from places separated by ten thousand miles of ^ 

 ocean, and one from an isolated island in the ocean, presenting 

 insuperable obstacles to a common origin within an immense dis- 

 tance of time, to say the least. 



Lest there might be some mistake as to the habitat of this 

 Ceylon Deer, which after a careful study showed so great a sim- 

 ilarity to the deer from Mexico, I wrote to Governor Latham, 

 who presented me with the buck, inquiring if it were not pos-l 

 sible that there was a mistake as to its origin ; to which he| 

 answered that there could be no mistake, for he took it from 

 sailing vessel which had just arrived at San Francisco from Cey- 

 lon, which had not touched at any intermediate port. The other' 

 arrived at San Francisco while I was there, on a Pacific mail 

 steamer, from Panama, which touched at Acapulco, where the 



