1 5 8 Rusine Group 



the antlers of which is figured by Sir Victor Brooke on page 56 of the 

 Proc. Zoo/. Soc. for 1877, the length from the occiput to the tip of the 

 nasals is 10.5 inches, and the length of the antlers along the outer curve 

 iS inches. A Luzon skull in the Museum is of approximately the same 

 size, with similar antlers. 



The Luzon sambar is a very rare animal in collections, the British 

 Museum possessing only a very few skulls, with antlers. The type of 

 (.'. philippimts is preserved in the Paris Museum. Judging from the figure 

 given by Sir Victor Brooke in his above-quoted paper of 1877 and from the 

 skulls in the British Museum, in the shortness of the face and the shape of 

 the antlers it appears to be very similar to the Formosan sambar, but it is 

 a shorter, less " leggy " animal, with the distinctive moustache-like mark- 

 ings on the upper lip. That it is only a race of the sambar, I am fully 

 convinced. 



The so-called Marianne deer (C marhinnus) was considered by Sir Victor 

 Brooke to be in all probability identical with this form ; and the specimens 

 in the British Museum leave no reasonable doubt in my mind that this view 

 of the case is the true one. Now the Marianne or Ladrone Islands are of 

 very small size, and situated more than twenty degrees east of Luzon, very 

 nearly in the longitude of New Britain ; and it seems inconceivable that 

 any >pecies of deer could naturally be found in islands of such a type situated 

 almost in the heart of Polynesia. Sir Victor Brooke has indeed suggested 

 that the Marianne sambar was introduced from Luzon by the Malays, and 

 this explanation must, I think, receive definite acceptation. Unfortunately, 

 the name C. mariannus antedates C. philippinus, but as the animal seems not 

 to be native to the Mariannes, I think the latter name must be adopted. 

 There is of course the possibility that even the Philippine race may be an 

 introduced variety of the Malayan sambar. 



Distribution. — The island of Luzon, at the northern extremity of the 

 Philippine group ; introduced into the Marianne Islands. 



f. Basilan Race — Cervus unicolor nigricans 



Ct'rvi/s nigricans, Brooke, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1877, p. 57, 1878, p. 902. 

 JJssa nigricans, Heude, Mem. hist. nat. cmp. C/iinois, vol. ii. p. 31 

 (1888). 



