146 



THE RATWA DEER 



the forehead, contracted on either side by their dilatation, forms a strong 

 crease between them. Nor, however strange it may at first sound 

 to one who has beheld the living animal to hear that these " ribs" 

 run from " horns to eyes," is the thing at all difficult of solution 

 by means of an ill-dried, distorted, skin. What is meant by the 

 thickening of the pedestals at top, and their having the appearance 

 of a rose after the horns are forced off, I cannot divine ; unless, in 

 the particular case, the horns should have been forced from the pe- 

 destals, leaving their own marginal protuberance or burr, attached 

 to the pedestals. In one of Buffon's Supplements it seems the 

 Cervus Miintjac is described as of a grayish-brown colour : if this be just, 

 Cervus Mimtjac will constitute, probably, a distinct species from Rativa ; 

 and I cannot help thinking that, in such case, the two ought to be, 

 sectionally at least, separated from Cervus. I have no late work on 

 Mammalia to refer to, and must crave pardon therefore, if I have been 

 anticipated in regard to that point; and perhaps also for the length of this 

 paper ; which yet should find its excuse in the acknowledged futility of 

 summary descriptions of new and foreign animals. The following are the 

 dimensions and size of a male Ratwa, which lately died in my possession. 



Ft. In. 



Tip of nose to root of tail, 3 4^ 



Head, length of, 8| 



Tail, ditto, to end of hair, 7J 



Height of animal, at shoulder, , 1 7| 



Utmost vertical measure of the head, 3| 



Depth of chest, , 8| 



Length of fore leg, to elbow, 1 



Ditto of hind ditto, to corresponding joint, 1 3| 



Ditto of ears, 4J 



Ditto of pedestals, above the skull, 4 



Ditto of horns, 3| 



Weight, 40 lbs... to 36 lbs. 



Valley of Nepal, October, 1831. 



