192 



Rucervine Group 



Habits. — Throughout the plains of India this species is commonly 

 known as the barasingha, that is, twelve-tined deer, but as the same name 

 is, incorrectly, applied in Kashmir to the hangul, it is preferable to employ 

 the title swamp-deer, although, as pointed out by Mr. Blanford, that name 

 is not entirely tree from objection. As regards food, the swamp-deer is 



Fig. 52. — Front view of Skull and Antlers of Swamp-Deer. 

 (Rowland Ward, Records of Big Gume.) 



mainly a grazing species, which makes it the more remarkable that its 

 distributional area in Central India should be restricted to the limits of one 

 particular kind of forest tree. Its favourite haunts are the outskirts of 

 woods, or grassy plains dotted with trees ; but in thick forest it is never 

 seen, although it may be met with in open woods. As the cold season 

 come- on, it collects in herds, which generally number from thirty to fifty 



