144 American Deer 



portion ; ears and tail variable. Pelage of adult uniformly coloured ; in 

 young usually spotted. A tarsal tuft present. Metatarsal gland and tuft, 

 when present, very variable in form and position. 1 Gland-pit in the skull 

 and face-gland very variable. Main hoofs long and pointed ; lateral hoofs 

 well developed. Upper canines present or absent ; upper molars with or 

 without a small additional column on the inner side. The inner aperture 

 or the nostrils on the under surface of the skull divided by the thin 

 longitudinal plate-like bone known as the vomer into two distinct 

 chambers. Size medium or small. 



All naturalists are agreed that the American deer form a very natural 

 group, connected together by many common features, and differing in 

 several respects from all the existing Old World deer. Different opinions 

 are, however, held as to whether they should all (with the exception of 

 the pudus) be included in a single genus, divided into several sub-generic 

 groups, or whether such minor groups should be allowed the rank of 

 genera. Gray and Fitzinger adopt the latter alternative, and Sir Victor 

 Brooke the former. Mr. Sclater, in the List of Animals in the Zoological 

 Society's Gardens, follows a middle course, including by far the greater 

 number of the species in Cariacus, but separating the guemals as Furcifer. 



To allow the minor groups the rank of distinct genera destroys to a 

 considerable extent the unity of the whole assemblage, and thus renders its 

 distinctness from all the existing Old World deer less apparent. And if, as 

 is done in this volume, the typical brow-tined deer of the Old World are 

 included in the single genus Cervus, then the groups into which the 

 American deer are divisible should likewise be brigaded together in the 

 single genus Maxama. If, on the other hand, it is thought advisable to allow 

 the various groups into which Cervus is divided, such as Pseudaxis, Dama, 

 Rusa, etc., to rank as genera instead of sub-genera, then the same course 

 should be adopted in the case of the American deer, and the various groups 

 here ranked as sub-genera should stand as genera. If this course be 

 adopted, it would be necessary to divide the sub-family Cervina into 

 several sectional groups, as otherwise the various genera would have very 

 different values, some being very nearly related, and others much more 

 widely separated. 



1 Brooke, Proc. Zoo/. Soc. 1878, p. 918, states that the metatarsal tuft is always situated in the 

 lower third of the cannon-bone ; whereas in M. columbiana it is solely in the upper half. 



