9^ 



Elaphine Group 



The hairs on the body differ from those of other species of the genus in 

 their coarseness and pithy interior, thus somewhat resembling those of the 

 musk-deer. Possibly this structure is a provision against extreme cold. 

 Each hair is long, with the greater portion brown, but the base buff, and 

 the tip whitish, thus communicating the speckled appearance to the whole 

 pelage. The light tips are, however, wanting on the margin of the 

 caudal disk, thus forming, as in the hangul, the blackish border to this 

 area. The reversal of the hairs on the middle line of the back extends 

 from the hips to the withers, where it ceases abruptly in a kind of hump. 



Compared with other members of the group, the skull is relatively 

 short ; and the muzzle is also exceptionally short and broad. In several 

 other structural details the skull also shows an approximation to the sikine 

 type ; but its most remarkable peculiarity is the great expansion of the 

 nasal bones a short distance below their upper extremities, this being so 

 great as almost to obliterate the lachrymal vacuity, which is consequently 

 much narrower than in other members of the group. In this respect the 

 species approximates to some of the smaller members of the sambar group. 



In regard to the affinity of this deer, Mr. Blanford remarks that it does 

 not come very close to any other species, although its relations are probably 

 on the whole nearer to C. cashmirianus and C. affinis than to any other. 

 He also remarks on certain wapiti-like characters in the antlers. But these 

 antlers — especially when they have only four points — appear to me in their 

 general flatness, and also in the absence of the bez-tine, to present a decided 

 resemblance to those of the sikas, towards which the species also approxi- 

 mates in the relative shortness of the skull. And it seems not improbable 

 that this form may indicate the line of descent of the wapiti from the 

 sikine group, while the hangul may mark the evolution of the red deer 

 from the same stock. 



Distribution. — The two specimens forming the types of C. thoroldi were 

 shot by Dr. W. G. Thorold during his journey across Tibet at a spot about 

 200 miles to the north-east of Lhasa, at an approximate elevation of 13,500 

 feet above the sea-level, in the snow among brushwood just above the forest. 

 The head and antlers of a third specimen had been previously purchased by 

 Mr. W. L. Sclater in the bazaar at Darjiling, and provisionally assigned 

 by him to the sikine group, under the name of Cervus dybowskii. At a still 

 earlier date specimens had been obtained from some part of Central Asia 



