Chital 



the antlers is very irregular, and the fawns may be dropped at any season, 

 a single doe not unfrequently having two fawns in the same year. A buck 

 born in December will usually shed his antlers in October, but one which 

 came into the world in July will throughout life drop them in May or 

 June. 



An observer writing under the pseudonym of " Hawkeye " has given 

 such a graphic account of chital in their native haunts that although it 

 has been already quoted, it will bear another repetition. " Deep in the 

 solitude of the woods," he writes, " see now the dappled herd, and watch 

 the handsome buck as he roams here and there in the midst of his harem, 

 or, browsing amongst the bushes, exhibits his graceful antlers to the lurk- 

 ing foe, who by patient woodcraft has succeeded in approaching his un- 

 suspecting victim ; observe how proudly he holds himself, as some other 

 buck of less pretensions dares to approach the ladies of the group ; see how 

 he advances, as on tiptoe, all the hair of his body standing on end, and 

 with a thundering rush drives headlong away this bold intruder, and then 

 comes swaggering back ! But, hark — a twig has broken ! Suddenly the 

 buck wheels round, facing the quarter whence the sound proceeded. Look 

 at him now, and say, is he not a quarry worth the hunter's notice ? 



" With head erect, antlers thrown back, his white throat exposed, his 

 tail raised, his whole body gathered together, prepared to bound away 

 into the deep forest in the twinkling of an eye, he stands a splendid 

 specimen of the cervine tribe. ... A doe suddenly gives that imper- 

 ceptible signal to which I have formerly alluded, and the next moment the 

 whole herd has dashed through the bamboo alleys, vanishing from sight — 

 a dappled hide now and again gleaming in the sunlight as its owner 

 scampers away to more distant haunts." 



Incert^e Sedis 

 i. Cervus lepidus 



Cervus lepidus, Sundevall, K. Svenska Vet. Ak. Handl. for 1844, p. 180 (1846); 

 Brooke, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1878, p. 902. 



Rusa lepida, Gray, Knowsley Menagerie, p. 63 (1850), Cat. Ungulata Brit. Mus. 

 p. 212 (1852) ; Fitzinger, SB. Ak. Wien, vol. lxx. part i. p. 302 (1874). 



Sir Victor Brooke observes that " this is a very doubtful species. Some years ago 



2 B 



