io6 Muntjacs 



unfavourable to prevent the species reaching the full luxuriance of growth 

 and beauty of which it is capable, though not sufficiently rigorous to 

 prevent its existence." 



In 1878 the same writer made the following additional observations : — 

 kt This species appears to attain a larger size in Java, Sumatra, and Borneo 

 than it does on the mainland ; and I think it not improbable that per- 

 sistent race characters may eventually be found distinguishing the muntjac 

 of these islands from that of British India." 



This latter paragraph indicates the probability of the island races being 

 sub-specifically distinct, but says nothing as to the form from Burma and 

 the Malay Peninsula as compared with the one from India. 



In 1878, Dr. J. Anderson, who has devoted special attention to the 

 question, wrote as follows : — " Hodgson separated the Nepal form as 

 distinct, having described it as Stylocerus ratwak, and Sundevall adopted this 

 opinion, but separated another from the same locality under the name of 

 Prox stylocerus. This latter naturalist also considered the Central and 

 Southern Indian barking-deer as a distinct species, and identified it with 

 the Prox albipes of Wagner. This latter race Sykes had considered as 

 C. muntjac, and more lately Gray renamed it under the designation of 

 C. tamulicus. I have examined the types of Styloccros ratva and C. tamulicus, 

 but I cannot detect that they differ specifically from Cervu/us muntjac of 

 other parts of India, and the specific name applied by Sundevall to the 

 Malabar race seems to indicate that it is also the same. They appear to 

 me to be only local races of one widely distributed species which ranges 

 over the Himalaya, India, and Ceylon through Arracan and Burma to the 

 Malayan Peninsula, Sumatra, and Java, spreading from the Himalaya east- 

 wards to the seaboard of China, and, according to Swinhoe, stretching to 

 the island of Hainan, where, he says, C. reeves! is replaced by the allied 

 Indian form." To this distributional area Borneo has to be added. Examples 

 from the latter island, Sumatra, and Java, are, as already said, of somewhat 

 larger dimensions than those from the Indian mainland, and should for this 

 reason probably be regarded as sub-specifically distinct, but further material 

 is required before the splitting up can be attempted. 



Habits. — The names of this species, both scientific and popular, are 

 remarkably numerous. In Hindustani it is known by the title of kakar, 

 while among English names we have, in addition to muntjac and rib-faced 



