144 



THE HATWA DEER 



as the spotted Axis : but it is volatile and capricious in its temper, 

 reminding one a good deal of Buffon's exquisite description of the Goat : 

 only the Rativa loves not rocks and precipices ; nor possesses the Goat's 

 wonderful power and propensity to climb and spring. The tamed Rativa 

 is aconlident, fearless, creature, which, small as it is, will not retreat before 

 man or dog, annoying it ; but will (the male) turn on the assailant and 

 attack resolutely both with its horns and tusks^ — cutting with the latter, 

 in the manner of the wild Hog. The female of the species is gentle and 

 timid, having neither horns or tusks ; but, in place of the former, two 

 bristly patches of dark hair like eyebrows^ — ^and of the latter, small conical 

 canines not protruding from the mouth. She has four teats, disposed qua- 

 drangularly on a white udder ; and a specimen procured on the 28th February, 

 had the udder teeming with milk. This individual must have just drop- 

 ped her young. She is rather smaller and paler in colours than the male. 

 The Ratwa is about three feet five inches long, exclusive of the tail; about 

 one foot eight inches in height, at the shoulder; and from forty to fifty lbs. 

 in weight. Colour, a bright, uniform, fail, yellow red ; — darkest, above ; 

 palest, below, or on the belly and pectoral surface of the neck : forehead 

 and limbs obscured with dusky-brown : insides of thighs, a patch on 

 either side the chest, insides of ears and tail, pure white : a blotch of black 

 in front of each pedestal of the horns, where the pedestals quit the forehead, 

 on the inferior surface, and a good deal of the upper lip, impure white 

 irides, dark brown ; muzzle and hoofs, black : coat or hair, close, full, 

 soft, short, applied to the skin ; in the living animal always exquisitely 

 clean and void of all offensive odour. 



The Rativa is found in the great central mountains of Nipal, 

 as well as in the small hills beneath them, and in the great forest 

 at their foot. He is more common, however, in the latter than in 

 the former tracts ; and in the former he confines himself to the basal 

 and gently sloping parts of the mountains; and, of them, to such 



