416 Further notice of a Nondescript Deer. 



bodies are covered down to the knee joints with thick 

 shaggy coats, resembling split whalebone, of four to eight 

 inches in length. 



The hair about the neck is very thick, and just like a 

 horse's mane, and the appearance the stag presents when 

 roused, with his shaggy mane standing on end, coupled with 

 the strong smell which at this season proceeds from their 

 bodies, perceptible at forty and fifty yards distance, is so 

 formidable, that I have known the boldest elephants refuse to 

 approach them. In June, the stags commence shedding 

 their horns, and the new ones have nearly attained their 

 full size by the end of November, but are in perfection in 

 February and March; about this time also (June) they 

 change their coats, which lose their whalebone texture, and 

 become of a beautiful glossy chesnut colour, and about half 

 an inch in length. The contour of their peculiarly small 

 heads, and the perfect symmetry of their forms, divested 

 of their long bristly coats, are now fully developed, and at 

 this season they are, in my opinion, the most beautiful and 

 graceful of the Deer species. The height of the full-grown 

 stags averages about eleven and a half hands, and that of 

 the does three or four inches less. The colour of the latter 

 is always the same — a bright bay, but more glossy during 

 the rains than at any other time. The principal distinction 

 between the Sungraee and others of the Deer species, con- 

 sists in the peculiar shape of the lower antlers, which 

 instead of breaking off at an angle where they are set on the 

 head, preserve the continuity of curve downwards, and 

 project over the eyes of the animal, which they nearly hide, 

 their semicircular shape giving the Deer when at gaze, or in 

 motion, the appearance of having two distinct pairs, the one 

 inclining forwards and the other backwards. The generality 

 of the stags have from six to ten branches or snags, but 

 I have killed very old ones, with no less than sixteen clearly 

 defined branches. 



