Sambar 145 



Characters. — Size typically large. Hair coarse and shaggy, the hairs 

 on the back not distinctly banded with differently coloured rings ; colour 

 of adult uniformly some shade of dark umber-brown, with chestnut or 

 whitish on the inner side of the buttocks, and often on the under-parts and 

 limbs ; young more or less uniformly coloured, or faintly spotted on the 

 hind-quarters. Antlers large, stout, and very rugose, with the brow-tine 

 generally long and making an acute angle with the beam, and the front or 

 outer tine of the terminal fork forming the continuation of the line of the 

 beam when there is any inequality in the length of the two tines ; the 

 space enclosed by the antlers of opposite sides generally V- or U-shaped, 

 although the tips of the antlers frequently are inclined inwards ; pedicles 

 of antlers short. Ears typically large, but relatively shorter in the smaller 

 races ; face-gland greatly developed, and capable of complete eversion ; 

 neck and throat thickly maned ; tail comparatively long, and more or less 

 bushy. 



Few groups of deer are more difficult to understand than the various 

 kinds of sambar ; and unfortunately the series of specimens in our 

 museums is far too incomplete to render possible a decisive solution of the 

 difficulty. This can only be done by the acquisition of an extensive series 

 of examples with the localities fully authenticated. From time to time 

 numerous examples of the group are exhibited in the Zoological Society's 

 Menagerie, and many are now living in the park at Woburn Abbey ; but 

 in too many instances such specimens are purchased from dealers without 

 any definite information as to their place of origin, and they consequently 

 rather increase than diminish the confusion. 



Very different views have been entertained as to whether the various 

 modifications of the sambar type indicate distinct species, or merely races 

 of one very variable form ; the latter view being adopted by the late Mr. 

 Blyth and subsequently by Mr. Blanford. My own observations lead to 

 the belief that all the kinds in which the front or outer tine of the terminal 

 fork of the antlers forms the continuation of the line of the beam, where 

 there is any inequality in the length of the two, are but varieties of a single 

 species. But, on the other hand, I am inclined to regard those forms in 

 which the back or inner tine is situated in the direct line of the beam as 

 representing a second specific type. Whether all the local modifications 

 of the first type are truly indigenous forms, and therefore entitled to rank 



u 



