388 On the Shou or Tibetan Stay. [No. 5. 



On the Shou or Tibetan Stay, Cervus Affinis,* mihi. (With two 

 Plates.) By B. H. Hodgson, Esq. 



Since my imperfect accounts of the Shou were published in the 

 Journal (Nos. 6 and 7 of 1850) abundant supplies of the spoils of the 

 species exhibiting both sexes in various states of maturity have been 

 received by Dr. Campbell through Chebu Lama, the Sikim Vakil ; 

 and, as Dr. Campbell has kindly placed these spoils at my disposal 

 for examination, I now proceed to describe this magnificent Stag from 

 unusually copious and adequate materials, the sculls and leg bones 

 being attached to the majority of the specimens. I have now examin- 

 ed nine samples, including my own original one which was described 

 in the Journal, No. 1 17 of 1841, where the scull and horns, deposited 

 since in the British Museum, are delineated. 



The Shou is from eight and a half to nine feet in length and from 

 four and a half to five feet high at the shoulder. The head is twenty- 

 two inches long, nine deep and seven and three quarters wide. The 

 ears are eleven inches long. The tail, less the hair, is three to four 

 inches. The fore leg, from mid flexure downwards, is eighteen inches ; 

 and the hind leg, nineteen inches and more. The fore hoof is four 

 and half inches long, three and three-eighths wide, and three high. 

 The hind hoof, four and one quarter inches long, three in width and 

 the same in height or depth. The horns are five feet long, three to 

 four in spread between the tips, and ten to eleven inches thick at base. 

 The general form of the animal is full of grace and vigour ; assimi- 

 lated to that of the European Stag, but with greater strength of limbs 

 and broader hoofs. The head is finely shaped with broad flat forehead 

 a little depressed before the horns, a slightly arched chaffron and 

 graceful termination forwards, not actually thickened, as I had sup- 

 posed, though less attenuated than in Hippelaphus, Elaphoides and 

 Axis, or the tropical Deer ; and the mufle or nude extremity of the 

 nose is decidedly smaller than in them, perhaps even more so than in 

 the Stag of Europe. The suborbital sinus is likewise conspicuously 

 smaller, in skin and in scull, than in the tropical Deer just cited, or 

 in the Muntjacs, though not inferior in size to the same organ in our 



* Dr. Campbell, Superintendent of Darjeeling has presented to the Society the 

 horns and skin of a very fine specimen in beautiful preservation. — Ed. 



