592 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [No. 6. 



probably, of the diminutive Prionodon. The large F. uncia has also nearly 

 the same proportions, with similar very long and well furred tail ; and it may 

 prove to be equally arboreal in the mountain pine-forests. The proper ground 

 Cats for little wooded districts are the Lynxes, which are the extreme 

 opposites in structure to the true Leopard group, wherein the three pre- 

 ceding species are comprised. Yet even the Lynxes are not bad climbers ; 

 whereas there are some few Cats, as the three largest of all, the Lion, 

 Tiger, and Jaguar, which never ascend trees, as the Leopard does so very 

 commonly. That the Cheeta (F. jubata) is no climber, is much less to be 

 wondered at. 



Together with the male specimen of the SJiou, or Tibetan Stag, pre- 

 sented on a former occasion by Dr. Campbell, — the horns of which are 

 far from having attained a first-rate magnitude, as shewn by Mr. Hodg- 

 son's figure and description in J". A. S. X, 722, as well as by his subse- 

 quent description, ibid. XX, 388, — I have now the pleasure of exhibiting 

 for comparison a noble frontlet and horns of the Wapiti Stag of N„ Ame- 

 rica, C. canadensis. To any person who has made a study of the sub- 

 ject, and is conversant with the essential distinctions observable among 

 the horns of different species of Deer, over and above the variations to 

 which all are liable, those speeifical distinctions are exceedingly well 

 marked in the horns of the Skou and of the Wapiti. As long ago stated 

 by me of a fine Stag-horn from Kashmir, the species being (as I now feel 

 more than ever confident) the same as that of Tibet, of Persia (where 

 known as the Maral), and in all probability that of the southern parts 

 of Siberia and of the north of China, — " the general character of horn 

 [of the great Asiatic Stag] is intermediate to that of the Wapiti and 

 European Stag, but agreeing more nearly with the latter in its kind of 

 granulated surface."* With the horns of all three species now before me, 

 aided by familiar recollection of numerous horns of C. elaphus, the typi- 

 cal character of the latter, or European Stag, is to have the most roughly 

 granulated surface to the horn, decidedly ; in the Asian Stag, the rugosity 

 is well marked, but smoothened a good deal, so as to be much less harsh 

 to the feel ; and in the IS". American Stag there is scarcely any roughness 

 whatever, the horn being smoother than in the Fallow Deer. Hence I sus- 

 pect that, in the great majority of instances, these horns might be readily 

 enough distinguished by the feel alone. Next, the tendency to flatten, or 

 palmate, in the crown of the Wapiti horn is very decided, from the base of 

 the median on " royal antler" upward or onward. The utmost transverse 

 depth of this palmature, at the base of the main fork of the crown, in the 

 » Proc. Zool. Soc. 1840, p. 80. 



