148 



Rusine Group 



Till the name unicolor was revived by Mr. Blanford, the sambar was 

 very generally known as C. aristotelis. Concerning the reasons for the 

 rejection of the latter name that author writes as follows : — "This fine deer 

 appears to have been first mentioned by Pennant, who described it as the 

 middle-sized and greater axis (Cervus axis unicolor and C. axis major of Kerr). 

 To these forms the names of Cervus unicolor and C. albicornis were applied 

 by Bechstein. Cuvier, in the second edition of his Ossemens Fossi/cs, named 

 different varieties C. hippclaphus and C. cquinus, and two years afterwards 

 added the names of C. aristotelis and C. leschenaultii, given to horns only. 

 Whv the name C. aristotelis, given to an abnormal horn, has been preferred 

 for the Indian sambar it is difficult to say. The name C. unicolor, employed 

 by Hamilton Smith, is preferable on account of both priority and suitability, 

 being an appropriate term for the only Indian deer with unspotted young." 



Imperfect skulls and antlers of a rusine deer from the Plistocene 

 deposits of the valley of the Narbada, India, have been provisionally 

 assigned by myself to the sambar, of which they may indicate an extinct 

 race. Other remains from the Pliocene formations of the Siwalik Hills 

 not improbably belong to more or less closely allied extinct species. 



Although sambar is the Hindustani name, and the one generally adopted 

 by sportsmen, in Nepal the stag is known as jarao, and the female as 

 iarai, and these latter terms are sometimes employed in sporting literature. 

 Plate x represents a stag and hind living in the menagerie at Woburn 

 Abbey in 1 897. 



Habits. — The life-history of the Indian sambar has been described by 

 several authors, among whom may be mentioned the late Sir Samuel Baker 1 

 and Captain Forsyth. 2 Although both stags and hinds are not unfrequently 

 found alone, sambar generally go about in small parties, varying in number 

 from tour or five to about a dozen. Their favourite haunts are rocky hills 

 and ranges, which are well wooded, and thus afford abundance of shady 

 retreat-. From such covert sambar issue forth at evening to graze in any 

 open grassy glades there may be in the neighbourhood, or to feed upon 

 plantations of sugar-cane, cinchona, etc. The young shoots and leaves of 

 trees, as well as various wild fruits, also form an important part of their diet. 

 Whether feeding on the upland glades or the cultivated tracts lower down, 



1 H'ild Beasts and their Ways, p. 408. 

 2 The Highlands of Central India. 



