IIEUDE'S CHINESE MAMMALS. 



19 



just mentioned from Kiente, though they agreed in size with 

 those of some males from Kiente of about the same age. 



C. rivierianus was represented by a single female skull from 

 Tong-lieou, which was indistinguishable, except that it was 

 younger and therefore slightly shorter, from the skulls of other- 

 females from Kiente. The skull of a young male with small 

 horns labelled C. grilloant<s bears a, Libel .similar to that upon the 

 C. rivierianus skull, and was collected by the same person at 

 the same place (Tong-lieou), apparently at the same time, while 

 the skull of an adult male with horns cut away, labelled 

 C. grilloanus, was collected at Kiente Central. 



Many of the labels on the skulls bear evidence that the specific 

 names have been erased and rewritten several times, giving clear- 

 proof of the doubt and confusion existing in the mind of Heude 

 himself as to which of his specimens belonged to which of his 

 species. 



Under these circumstances I fail to find any reason for admitting 

 the existence of more than one species of Sika in the Yang-tze 

 Valley, and therefore I would suggest that, until further and 

 more substantial evidence than the shape of deers" horns (capable, 

 as is w r ell known, of almost unlimited minor variation in a single 

 species), which seems to have been the chief characteristic used 

 by Heude in his classification, is forthcoming, the whole of his 

 names for the Yang-tze Sikas be suppressed in favour of Swinhoe's 

 much earlier name kopschi*. 



As an example of the extraordinary state of confusion that 

 exists amongst Heucle's specimens was a skull of a. fine fully adult 

 male Sika with good horn-development. On the label of the skull 

 the name oxycephalies has been scratched out and replaced by 

 another which is illegible. The word type was also written on 

 the label. This skull was not specifically different from any of 

 the other Kiente skulls. 



Cervus jjugenxianus Heude f . 



The two skulls from Phu-lang-thuang, Tonkin, I found to 

 closely resemble those from the Yang-tze, but on account of the 

 geographical position of the species, and without going into any 

 further details, I should consider it valid. 



I could not find any specimens of the following species named 

 by Heude : — 



Cervus cyclorhinus. Shantung. 

 ,, hyemcdys. North Shantung. 

 ,, ignotus. Central China. 



,, yuanus, Found in the gravel in caves near 

 Tong-lieou, facing An-king-fu. 

 Regarding the first two I very much doubt if Sika have 

 occurred in a wild state in Shantung for hundreds of years. 

 That province is closely settled and contains no forested regions 



* P. Z. S. 1873, p. 574. 



f Mem. cone. l'Hist. Nut. de i'Emp. Chin, tome ii, p. 156. 



