IX. 



ON THE 



RATWA DEER OF NEPAL. 



By B. H. HODGSON, Esq. 



ACTING RESIDiiNT AT KATHMANDU. 



HI. The Ratwa Deer. — Cervus Rativa (Mihi) 

 Cervus Muntjac ? — Pennant. 



Habitat. Central and low^er Hills of Nepal, and great Saul forest. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTER. 



Small red Deer, with very small, suberect, sublunated, bi or trifurcate, 

 rounded, horns, set on lofty, hairy, compressed, pedestals ; and with 

 frontal as well as suborbital fissures. 



This remarkable animal, whose horns bear some remote analogy to 

 those of Camclopnrdalis, which is ailined to Moschus by its tusks, and to 

 Capra by its shortish and full body, as well as by its capricious and airy 

 manners, has yet all the inlliiential characters of Cervus, to whic h Genus 

 it unquestionably belongs its mu/zlc being very nuiist, its suborbital 

 sinuses extremely conspicuous, and its horns, annu;il, bony, ;uk1 biaiu lii d. 

 But these horns, instead of bcini;- amply developed ami sprinuiiiu iuuuc- 

 diately from the crown of the forehead, after the manner of most, li not 



