Chinese Water-Deer 



22 I 



hinder angle, and may indicate an allied form, but as a similar peculiarity- 

 occurs in the roes it cannot certainly be assigned to the present genus. 

 Distribution. — The eastern extremity of the Eastern Holarctic region. 



The Chinese Water-Deer — Hydrelaphus inermis 



Hydropotes inermis, Swinhoe, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1870, p. 89 ; Hamilton, 

 ibid. 1 871, p. 258, 1873, p. 473 ; Brooke, ibid. 1872, p. 522, 1878, p. 916 ; 

 Gray, Cat. Ruminants Brit. Mus. p. 95 (1872) ; Garrod, Proc. Zool. Soc. 

 1877, p. 789 ; Forbes, ibid. 1882, p. 636. 



(?) Hydropotes argyropus, Heude, C. R. Ac. Paris, vol. xcviii. p. 1017 

 (1884), imperfect description. 



Plate XVII, fig. 2 



Characters. — Height at shoulder about 20 inches. Hair very coarse 

 and thick, longest on the neck and rump ; the individual hairs on the back 

 and sides flattened, and undulated from side to side. General colour of 

 upper-parts light rufous chestnut, stippled with blackish, the rufous tinge 

 most marked on the head and back of the ears ; the individual hairs grayish 

 white from the base for the greater part of their length, then blackish 

 brown, and finally light chestnut, the dark rings giving the stippled appear- 

 ance to the pelage ; neck paler than back, with its under surface plain- 

 coloured ; shoulder, limbs, and tail brownish chestnut ; under-parts, front 

 of thigh, chin, throat, a narrow band on the muzzle, a mark above the eye, 

 and the inner surface of the ear white or whitish. The fawn is somewhat 

 sparsely and indistinctly spotted with white ; the spots running in longi- 

 tudinal lines from the neck to the tail, leaving a space of about an inch and 

 a half in width uniformly coloured. The upper line of spots is fairly 

 distinct and defined, but the two lower ones are shorter and more irregular. 

 The indistinctness of the spots is due to the circumstance that they are 

 formed, not by completely white hairs, but by hairs which are reddish for 

 the greater part of their length and only tipped with white. 



Distribution. — North -Eastern China, typically from the islands in the 

 Yang-tsi-kiang, and perhaps Corea. The form stated to come from the 

 latter locality was considered to be a distinct species and named H. argyropus, 

 but no sufficient description of it seems to have been published, although 

 it is stated to be lighter coloured than the ordinary form. 



