Schomburgk's Deer 193 



head, but in certain districts may include several hundred individuals. In 

 the spring these herds break up, and as in Assam single stags may be found 

 among long grass with their antlers in velvet at the end of March, it is 

 presumed that the shedding must take place at least as early as February. 

 Compared with the sambar, the swamp-deer is decidedly a more diurnal 

 animal, as it may frequently be observed grazing late in the forenoon and 

 again early in the afternoon, although it invariably retires to the shade for 

 a mid-day rest. The pairing-season appears to commence about the latter 

 part of October. Although this species has bred in the London Zoological 

 Gardens, I have no information as to the usual breeding-time, or whether 

 more than a single fawn is ever produced at a birth. 



A writer quoted by Jerdon thus speaks of these deer in Central India : 

 " The plain stretched away in gentle undulations towards the river, distant 

 about a mile, and on it were three large herds of barasinghas feeding at 

 one time ; the nearest was not more than five hundred yards away from 

 where I stood ; there must have been at least fifty of them, stags, hinds, 

 and fawns, feeding together in a lump, and outside the herd grazed three 

 most enormous stags. . . . Then the herd went ofF in earnest, showing a 

 perfect forest of antlers, and the clatter of their hoofs on the hard ground 

 was like the sound of a squadron of cavalry going to water." 



This deer has received its specific name in honour of the French 

 naturalist Duvaucel, and it is not a little remarkable that such an amount 

 of error should have crept into the spelling of the Latinised version. 



2. Schomburgk's Deer — Cervus schomburgki 



(?) Cervulus cambojensis, Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1861, p. 138. 

 Cervus [Rucervus) schomburgki, Blyth, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1863, p. 155, 

 1867, p. 835. 



Cervus schomburgki, Sclater, Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. vii. p. 349 (1871) ; 

 Brooke, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1876, p. 304, 1878, p. 905 ; W. L. Sclater, Cat. 

 Mamm. Ind. Mus. part ii. p. 180 ( 1 89 1 ) ; Ward, Records of Big Game, p. 15 

 (1896). 



Rucervus cambojensis, Gray, Cat. Ruminants Brit. Mus. p. 76 (1872). 

 Rucervus schomburgkii, Fitzinger, SB. Ak. Wien, vol. lxxix. part i. p. 64 

 (1879). 



