514 Great and Small Game of Africa 



century. Cuvier and other French writers of the early part of this century 

 stated that fallow deer were found wild near Tunis (as well as in the 

 forests of Eastern Algeria). But it would seem that these Tunisian fallow 

 deer had been kept in a semi-wild state by a former Bey of Tunis, and 

 Tunisian authorities state that they were obtained by this Bey from 

 Sardinia. The Beys of Tunis for a century past have been fond of keeping 

 birds and beasts either in menageries or in parks. In this way they 

 introduced at one time the domestic buffalo from Italy, and allowed it to 

 run wild upon an estate in the northern part of Tunis, where it now exists in 

 a small herd of about fifty, resembling in appearance, though inferior to, 

 the Indian Ami. In like manner the Beys have kept fallow deer from 

 time to time, but I do not think any case has been recorded within the 

 present century of real wild fallow deer being found within the limits of 

 Tunisia, or indeed in Algeria. h. H. Johnston. 



THE WATER-CHEVROTAIN 



Family Tragulid^e. Genus Dorcatherium 



The chevrotains, or mouse-deer, are small, delicately-built ruminants, in 

 some respects intermediate between the true deer (with which they are often 

 confounded) on the one hand, and the camels and pigs on the other. They 

 have, for instance, the hinder cheek-teeth of a deer-like type, and they lack 

 upper front or incisor teeth. But their anterior cheek-teeth are of a more 

 pig-like type, while the structure of their feet is, on the whole, more pig- 

 like than deer-like. They have no trace of horns or antlers, but their 

 upper jaws are armed with formidable flattened tusks, like those of the 

 musk-deer. 



The typical members of the family (Tragu/us) are confined to the 

 warmer parts of Asia, the sole African representative being the water- 



