518 Additional Notice of the Shou or Tibetan Staff. [No. 7. 



Additional Notice of the Shou or Tibetan Stag. — By B. H. 

 Hodgson, Esq. 



Since my recent account of the Tibetan Stag was submitted to the 

 Society I have been enabled, through Dr. Campbell's kindness, to exa- 

 mine another specimen consisting of a nearly complete head and horns 

 with the skin on, and inclusive of the scull, which however wants 

 the lower jaw. These are the spoils of a male, and a mature or rather 

 aged male, as is evidenced by the inferior size of the horns, by the 

 partially obliterated sutures of the scull, and by the well-worn canine 

 teeth; and, as this magnificent animal is a tenant of one of the strangest 

 and most interesting regions of the earth, I need make no apology 

 for devoting a few more lines to the description of this second, and 

 in some respects superior, sample of it. The skin is not entirely separ- 

 ated from the scull, nor am I permitted wholly to remove it ; but 

 the specimen, as it stands before me, affords satisfactory means of test- 

 ing the characters, and obtaining most of the dimensions, of both head 

 and scull, and I shall accordingly give a summary notice of both, in 

 completion of my prior paper on the Shou. 



The head with its integuments is about 1 8 inches long, of straight 

 measurement from the snout to the occipital jut, and about 7 inches 

 wide between the salient angles of the brows which project more 

 to the sides than do the cheek bones and consequently exhibit the 

 maximum of breadth. The bridge of the nose inclines to a curve 

 or " Roman" shape. The forehead is broad and flat, seeming to have 

 even a slight dip or depression before the bases of the horns. The 

 mufle, or nude extremity of the nose, is small but distinct, smaller 

 than in any congener I ever saw, but yet unmistakeably developed. 

 It occupies the space between the nostrils, and descends narrowing on 

 the front of the upper lip, till at the margin or aperture of the mouth, 

 the nude moist part of the lip is reduced to less than three quarters 

 of an inch in breadth. The larmiers or suborbital fissures are of 

 medial size, and nude inside as well as round their edges. They are 

 much smaller than in the Rusas, but fully as large as in the Red 

 Deer. The ears are remarkably long (9£ inches), narrow and pointed, 

 and their copious lining of soft hair, not less than the limited mufle, 

 indicates the extreme coldness of the animal's abode. 



