INDIAN MUNTJAC OR BARKING BEER 



8i 



Fronllel ami Antlers of Indian Munljac. 



INDIAN MUNTJAC or BARKING DEER (Cervulus muntjac). 



This species is the typical representative of a genus of small 

 Oriental deer differing widely from all those included in Cervns. The 

 antlers, which do not exceed half the length of the head, have a short 

 brow tine and an unbranched beam, and are supported on long skin- 

 covered pedicles, continued downwards as convergent ridges on the 

 forehead, whence the name of rib-faced deer. Tufts of bristly hair occupy 

 the position of the antlers in the females. The muzzle has a large naked 

 portion, and although there is generally a pair of glands on the face, 

 there are none either on the hock or the cannon-bone. The young 

 are spotted, but the adults uniformly coloured. In the Indian muntjac, 

 which is one of the reddish-coloured species, and whose range extends 

 from Ceylon and India through Burma to China, the Malay Peninsula, 

 Sumatra, and Java, the height at the shoulder varies from 20 to 22 

 inches. The Chinese muntjac ((7. recvcsi), from Southern China and 

 Formosa, is a much smaller species, also reddish in colour ' but in the 

 rare Tenasserim muntjac {C. fccr), and the larger but equally scarce 

 hairy-fronted muntjac {C. criiiifnvis) of Eastern China, the general hue 

 of the bodj' is dark purplish sepia-brown, with white on the buttocks and 

 under surface of the tail. The average height at the shoulder is about 

 26 inches, and weight about 2S lbs. ; a female stands about 23 inches 

 and weighs about 32 lbs. In 1852 Mr. Wilson ("Mountaineer") had a 

 specimen of which Mr. A. O. Hume recorded the measurements as 

 follows : antlers round the curve outside, 9.5 and 9.0 long. In those 

 days he did not collect horns, and only noted them. 



