AXIS MA-CULATUS. 261 



The Spotted Deer. 



Descr.— General color yellow or rufous-fawn with numerous white spots, 

 and a dark dorsal streak from the nape to the tail; head brownish and the 

 muzzle dark; chin, throat and neck in front white; lower parts and thighs 

 internally, whitish ; ears hrown externally, white within ; tail longish, white 

 beneath. The basal tine is directed forwards, and in old indiyiduals has 

 often one or two points near the base. 



Length, about 4i to nearly 5 feet ; height at shoulder 36 to 38 inches. 



Hodgson insists that there are two species of spotted deer, which he 

 named respectirely, Axis major, and Axis medius, the latter as being 

 intermediate in size to the larger kind, and the hog-deer, Axis minor 

 apud Hodgson. These are ignored by Blyth and Gray, but I am inclined 

 to agree with Hodgson in this from my personal knowledge of the spotted 

 deer of Malabar and of Central India. When I first saw horns of the 

 spotted deer killed in Central India, and subsequently killed it myself, I 

 was astonished at their size and their greater smoothness as compared 

 with specimens of the Southern Indian Axis, and on maldng the proper 

 references, found that Hodgson had distinguished them. From want of 

 specimens, howeyer, I am at present unable to point out their specific 

 differences except in a general way, and have therefore allowed both to 

 stand under Axis maculatus. 



It appears to me very probable that Kelaart's Axis oryzeus is either 

 the same, or a still smaller race of spotted deer. Blyth, indeed, classes 

 the Ceylon animal as a variety of the hog deer, but states that it is 

 somewhat lighter in form, with the menilling more distinct in summer 

 vesture, and the horns perhaps longer on the average, with the inner 

 prong of the terminal fork branching at a less abnipt angle, all tend- 

 ing to approximate nearer to Axis maculatus. Now, if these differential 

 points be extended a little more, they would tally nearly with the spotted 

 deer of Malabar. This animal has the horns much longer than in the 

 hog-deer, slender in make, and rougher externally than those of the 

 deer of Central India, with the bifurcated extremity as described by 

 Blyth of the Ceylon deer, and the basal antler longer and more directed 

 upwards. I never saw; in the South of India, any disposition to throw off 

 points on the basal tine as in the large Axis. It always retains its spotted 

 pelage, and is a good deal smaller than the northern deer, standing about 

 30 to 34 inches in height, and is a light and graceful animal, very unlike 



