Characters 223 



Characters. — Lateral metacarpal bones as in Rangifer. Antlers compara- 

 tively small, rising very close together and almost vertically from the crown 

 of the head, without a brow-tine, the beam dichotomously forking at a point 

 usually about two-thirds of the total length, and the posterior, or upper 

 prong of this fork, which is the larger, again dividing ; the normal number 

 of tines being thus three. Muzzle with a large naked portion extending 

 up between the nostrils, the upper border of the portion between the same 

 straight, and the part below the nostrils narrow ; ears large ; tail very short 

 and rudimentary ; face short, with the muzzle blunt. Pelage of adult 

 uniformly coloured, with a pure white patch in the region of the tail in 

 winter ; young spotted. A metatarsal gland and tuft, situated in the upper 

 half of the metatarsal segment. In the skull, the gland-pit extremely small 

 and shallow, the face-gland itself being almost obsolete. Lateral hoofs well 

 developed. Upper canines wanting ; upper molars tall-crowned, without 

 distinct additional columns on the inner side. On the under surface of the 

 skull the vomer not dividing the inner aperture of the nostrils into two 

 portions. Size rather small ; build tall. 



The lower jaw has the same contour posteriorly as in the Chinese water- 

 deer ; but the auditory bulls on the under surface of the skull are not 

 markedly inflated, and the unossifled vacuity near the gland-pit is reduced 

 to a narrow slit. The foot-glands are very similar to those of Hydrelaphus, 

 being rudimentary in the fore-feet, and deep in the hinder pair. With 

 regard to the systematic position of the genus, the late Professor Garrod 1 

 wrote that " Gapreolus caprea is one of the most difficult of the deer tribe to 

 localise ; and I have placed it not far from Cervulus on account of the con- 

 figuration of" certain organs. In some degree this reference is confirmed 

 by the extinct Dremotherium, in which the antlers are to a certain extent 

 intermediate between the brow-tined and the forked types. But if Gapreolus 

 is close to Hydrelaphus and the latter is remote from Cervulus, the connection 

 between the first and third cannot be very intimate. In the structure of 

 the lateral metacarpal bones Gapreolus resembles Mazama ; and by Sir Victor 

 Brooke Alces, Hydrelaphus, and Gapreolus were placed in a group by them- 

 selves next the American deer. The late Dr. Gray was so fully convinced 

 of the intimate relation between the present genus and the American deer, 

 that he termed some of the latter " American roes " ; and probably this 



1 Proc. Zool. Soc. 1877, p. 18. 



