1846.] Rough Notes on the Zoology of Candahar. 147 



must be the species alluded to. To this view of the case, I have to 

 offer the following objections and suggestions : 



1st. — As regards the country called " Arachosia," it would appear 

 from various sources, and among others from Professor Lassen, 41 that 

 Arachosia was part of the country called f Ariana" and situated in 

 that part of Afghanistan of which Candahar is the capital. Such being 

 the case, it is at once evident, that the animal alluded to by Aris- 

 totle under the name of Hippelaphus, could not have been the Nyl- 

 ghau, inasmuch as that animal does not anywhere occur within the 

 limits of Afghanistan, and in all probability it does not even cross 

 the Indus. The same remark will equally apply to the Saumer 

 deer of India, and indeed to all the deer tribe, as none of them, as 

 far as I could learn after two years' inquiry, are found in that part of 

 the country. 42 It would seem proved, therefore, that neither the Saumer 

 nor the Nylghau can be the Hippelaphus of Aristotle. Mr. Ogilby says, 

 the name Hippelaphus is now applied to the Saumer, but in the English 

 ' Regne Animal,' the specific title of" Aristotelis" is given to that animal. 

 It is as yet undetermined, I believe, whether the Saumer and Jurrow are 

 the same species or not, and until such is proved, the name of '• Aristotelis" 

 must apply to the latter deer. 43 



41. Journal As. Soc. Bengal, Nos. 86 and 101 passim. 



42. The 'Arachosian Ox* of Aristotle is, beyond doubt, the Buffalo.— Cur. As. 

 Soc. 



43. Vide Journ. As. Soc. XI, 449, for some remarks on this subject, which further 

 observation has confirmed, as regards the distinctness of the ' Jurrow' (C. Aristotelis J, 

 the * Saumer' (C. hippelaphus, Cuv.^, and the Malayan Rusa (C. equinus. Cuv.) 

 The Jurrow is peculiar to the Himalaya, and its antlers are always much larger, and 

 more divergent than in the others; and the prongs composing their terminal fork are 

 generally about equal in length ; sometimes the inner and sometimes the outer, being 

 the longer. In the Saumer, which inhabits Bengal, Arracan, and the hill forests of 

 Peninsular India (it being doubtless also the Cingalese species), the antlers very 

 rarely, if ever, exceed two feet and a half in length, and are much less massive than 

 those of the Jurrow ; of the prongs of their terminal fork, the outer is usually the 

 longer. In the Malayan Rusa, inhabiting the Malay Peninsula and Java, the con- 

 trary obtains ; the inner prong being usually much the longer, and the reverse of this 

 is observable in a still greater degree in the common Axis or spotted deer. In addition 

 to series of each of the above in the Society's museum, are three pairs of antlers of a 

 Rusa, now common in the Mauritius, and which nearly resemble those of the Malayan 

 C. equinus, but are remarkable for a strong sigmoid flexuosity of the beam. There 

 are also two frontlets from Assam, which seem to be referrible to the Saumer, having 

 the antlers unusually robust but short, apd (as inordinary Saumer) much less diverg- 

 ent than those of the Jurrow.— Cur. As. Soc. 



