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Tufted Deer 



Distribution. — Eastern China, in the neighbourhood of Ningpo. 



Nothing is known as to the habits of this species, but Mr. Styan states 

 that it is apparently very rare, his collector refusing to believe in its existence 

 until lie came across the female specimen described above. The only other 

 known example is the type male. 



V. The Tufted Deer — Genus elaphodus 



Elaphodus, Milne-Edwards, Arch. Mus. Paris, vol. vii. p. 93 ( 1 871 ) , 

 Recherch. Mamm. p. 353, plates lxv-lxvii (1872-74) ; Garrod, Proc. Zool. Soc. 

 1876, p. 757; Brooke, ibid. 1878, p. 899; Riitimeyer, Abh. schweiz. pal. 

 Ges. vol. viii. p. 28 (1881). 



Lophotragus, Swinhoe, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1874, p. 452. 



Characters. — Lateral metacarpals as in Qervus, but still more rudimentary, 

 and occasionally wanting. Antlers very small, supported on long slender 

 pedicles, which diverge on the face, and do not send down long ridges on 

 the forehead of the skull ; scarcely projecting above the large frontal tufts 

 of hair. No glands on the forehead. Other characters generally as in 

 Cervulus, but the long tusks of the male not everted at the tips, the hair 

 always very shaggy and coarse, the ears broad, rounded, and thickly haired 

 externally, and the tail of moderate length. The young are spotted only 

 along the middle line of the back. 



The genus is very closely connected with the preceding by means of the 

 hairy-fronted muntjac, and it may even be a question whether the two 

 should not be merged in one ; in which case the two members of the 

 present group should be regarded as sub-species rather than species. Both 

 Cervulus and Elaphodus present a remarkable peculiarity in the structure of 

 the ankle-joint, or tarsus, found in no other Old-World deer. In common 

 with other ruminants, all the Cervida have the navicular and cuboid bones 1 

 of the tarsus welded together into a compound bone known as the naviculo- 

 cuboid ; but in the two genera mentioned a further solidification of this 

 joint is brought about by two other bones, respectively termed the middle 

 and outer cuneiform bone, uniting with the naviculo-cuboid. Further evid- 

 ence of their affinity is afforded by the structure of the skull, the large 



1 For explanation of these terms, see Flower, Osteology of the Mammalia. 



