IfiO ON THE HIPPELAPHUS. 



on, and yet a distinction too nice to be made by any one not well practised 

 in natural history. 



But these reflections could not take place amidst the prejudices that re- 

 garded the Hippelaphus, and if we suggest the n now, it is because we 

 have recently learned that Mons. Cavier has recognized it in a stuft ani- 

 mal in England, and because chance his thrown in our way a new Deer, 

 so similar to the one described by Aristotle, that no doubt can remain of its 

 being the very same animal, since this species, very numerous in Bengal, 

 and equally common on the banks of the Indus, must also be easily met 

 with in the province of the Arachotas, situate on this side mount Caucasus, 

 between Persia and India, where Aristotle made his observation, and where, 

 in fact, there exists a large kind of black Disc which the Persians call 

 Sgah-Ahii, 



This animal, which we have repeatedly observed in the mountains of 

 Sylhet, as well as at Sumatra, and of which two individuals are now existing 

 in the menagerie at Barrackpore, attains a much larger growth than the 

 common Deer, being much taller, and differing from it also by its coat 

 which is of a darker hue, from which it derives in all countries the name 

 of Black Deer, — Rousso Itam with the Malays ; Kdla Harin in Bengal. 



When two years old, its lowe; jaw and its neck are covered with hairs, 

 long and hard, similar to a m/me and beard, though precisely neither the 

 one, nor the. other, since they are not implanted on the chin only, but de- 

 scend on the sides and under the neck. Consequently th» appellation, of 

 mane is no more correct than that of beard, and perhaps Aristotle might be 

 taxed with a slight negligence, were it not that we may believe him to 

 have seen the animal at a distance only, or that in default of the appropri- 

 ate words, he may have chosen those that conveyed a juster idea of a lower 

 jaw and a neck covered with long hair. 



The physiognomy (if I may use that expression in English) of the Black 



