1853.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 593 



pair of Wapiti horns now exhibited, amounts to 7 in., by 1| in. breadth. 

 Nothing of the kind is ever seen in the European Stag, nor (it would 

 seem) in the Asian species. Again, the tendency in the Wapiti is to have 

 the crown not only flattened, but further subdivided than in the Asian 

 Shou, in which, we may now venture to affirm, it rarely more than simply 

 bifurcates ; but Capt. Cunningham assured Mr. Hodgson that " the 

 Kashmir Stag has, sometimes, a double fork at the top of its horns."* Such 

 is shewn in the Wapiti horns now before the meeting ; the crown first 

 bifurcating, with a considerable amount of palmation as already described, 

 this flattening being continued on each branch, and the hinder of these 

 again bifurcating, while the anterior bifurcates imperfectly on the left 

 horn, and tends towards the same form on the right horn ; the posterior 

 prong of the anterior main branch of each crown being the defective one. 

 Next (and this I remember well to be characteristic of the Wapiti), the 

 posterior main branch of the crown does not slant somewhat abruptly 

 inwards, like the usually undivided posterior prong of the (in general) 

 simply bifurcating crown of the Asian Shou, but inclines directly back- 

 ward and somewhat downward, with a tendency to subdivide again and 

 again, as shewn in the otherwise abnormal Wapiti horn (No. 4) figured 

 in J. A. S. X, plate 4, p. 750. Another marked and distinctive character 

 of an average Shou horn is the comparatively very abrupt bend of the 

 beam from the base of the median or royal antler, which, with the equally 

 abrupt slant inward of the posterior prong of the bifurcating crown, im- 

 parts a sort of lyrate aspect to the pair, very different from the more 

 even curvature of beam seen in the Wapiti. Lastly, still another charac- 

 ter very commonly present in Wapiti horns, and scarcely if ever seen in 

 those of the Shou and European Stag, consists in the presence of a small 

 snag between the bases of the brow and bez antlers, and a little to the front ; 

 which is distinctly shewn, though small, in both horns of the pair 

 before us. 



2. To Babu E-ajendra Mallika, we are indebted for a fine stuffed specimen 

 of a young Cassowary, retaining much of the brown plumage of youth, 

 though at the time of its death it was putting forth the black plumage of 

 maturity ; and the two are throughout intermixed in the specimen. Also 

 a dead Rose-breasted Cockatoo (Cacatua eos) ,- and a broken egg of Cyg- 



NUS ATRATUS. 



3, Erom Dr. Fayrer, late of Rangoon. A few specimens in spirit, compris- 

 ing Elaps melanurus, Homolopsis hydrina, Cantor, Bungarus candi- 

 dus, Scorpio afer, and a few other sundries. 



* /. A. S. XX, 393. 



4f2 



