MAMMALIA. 



91 



primis subcequalibus approximatis, tertio paullo minore, quarto maximo, basin versus planulato, 

 tribus ultiniis gradatim diminuentibus. 



1 pair of loose horns without label said to have been purchased in Kashghar. 



The loose horns appear to me to indicate a new stag. They have apparently been shed, 

 and they probably belonged to different animals. They are of large size, each measuring 

 51 inches in length round the curve, one is 109, the other 10*5 inches in circumference 

 at the base, just above the burr. Each shows 7 well-formed tines, so that the animal 

 must have had 14 points. The bi^m is very much curved, and, so far as it is possible to 

 judge from the form of the burr, the horns must bend somewhat towards each other at the 

 tips and branch apart less than in most stags. The brow antler and bez are close together, 

 the former slightly exceeds the latter in length, and the bez is rather longer than the royal. 

 The greatest peculiarity of the horns, however, is in the form of the crown. Above the royal 

 the beam curves inwards and gives out an anterior tine which is much the largest of all, and 

 slightly compressed, being only a little shorter, and scarcely smaller, than the beam itself. 

 Above this the beam gives out two other tines, each successively diminishing in length, and 

 all these four branches, that is, the beam itself and the three upper tines, ar3 in nearly the 

 same plane, so that by looking at the horn with either the beam or the great fourth tine in 

 front, the remainder of the crown can be concealed behind either one or the other. 



The nearest approach to these horns in form with which I am acquainted may perhaps be 

 found in a pair figured by Severtzoff in his Turkestanskie Jevotnie, p. 105, under the name of 

 Cervus maral. The number of tines is similar, and there is some resemblance in their form 

 and in the manner in which the beam curves backwards above the royal. The horns figured 

 come from the Thian-Shan. But in Severtzoff's figure, the brow and bez-antlers are much 

 farther apart, the beam appears less curved inwards above the royal, and the tendency to 

 palmation in the crown is wanting, whilst the lowest of the four points composing the crown 

 scarcely exceeds the two next in size. 



The horns of C. eustephanus differ widely from those of Cervus maral represented in the 

 Transactions of the Zoological Society, Vol. VII, p. 336, PL XXIX. The curve of the beam 

 in the present stag is greater, the brow and bez-antler closer together, and different in propor- 

 tion and direction, and the crown is very dissimilar. 



On comparing the Thian-Shan horns with those of Cervus cashmirianus 1 and C. affinis, 2 

 even greater differences will be noticed. The Turkestan horns are smoother, and curved 

 backwards towards the tip ; the brow and bez-antler are closer together, and the form of the 

 crown is totally distinct. Indeed in C. affinis there are said never to be more than two j)oints 

 at the tip of each horn above the royal. At the same time the horns of C. eustephanus closely 

 approach those of C. affinis in the great curve of the beam. 



Whatever Mr. Hodgson's Cervus narayanus, founded upon a single immature horn (figured 

 J. A. S. B., 1851, xx, PI. VIII, and described, p. 392) may be, it is evidently something 

 very different, its great peculiarity being the great distance apart of the basal tines. 



It appears to me that as regards the horns, the Thian-Shan stag approaches the Wapiti 

 more than any Asiatic deer. The resemblance between the Asiatic stags and Cervus canadensis 

 has been discussed by many naturalists, and by none more fully than by Mr. Blyth, 3 who has 



1 Falconer, Pal. Man., i, p. 576. 



- Hodgson, J. A. S. 13., 1841, x, p. 721. 



3 J. A. S. B„ 1853, xxii, p. 592 ; 1861, xxx, p. 185, &c. 



