Chap. I.J 



CEYLOX ELK. 



59 



present to Her Majesty, but it was unfortunately killed 

 by an accident. 1 



Ceylon Elk. — In the mountains, the Ceylon elk 2 , 

 which reminds one of the red deer of Scotland, attains 

 the height of four or five feet ; it abounds in all shady 

 places that are intersected by rivers ; where, though its 

 chase affords an endless resource to the sportsman, its 

 venison scarcely equals in quality the inferior beef of the 

 lowland ox. In the glades and park-like openings that 

 diversify the great forests of the interior, the spotted 

 Axis troops in herds as numerous as the fallow deer in 

 England ; but, in journeys through the jungle, when 

 often dependent on the guns of our party for the pre- 

 carious supply of the table, we found the flesh of the 

 Axis 3 and the Muntjac 4 a sorry substitute for that of the 

 pea-fowl, the jungle-cock, and flamingo. The occurrence 

 of albinos is very frequent in troops of the axis. Deer's 

 horns are an article of export from Ceylon, and consider- 

 able quantities are annually sent to the United Kingdom. 



VII. Pachydermata. — The Elephant — The elephant 

 and the wild boar, the Singhalese "waloora," 5 are the 

 only representatives of the pachydermatous order. The 

 latter, which differs somewhat from the wild boar of 



1 When the English took posses- stance occurred during my resi- 

 sion of Kandy, in 1803, they found dence in Ceylon, in which two 

 " five beautiful milk-white deer in natives, whose mimicry had mu- 

 the palace, which was noted as a tually deceived them, crept so close 

 very extraordinary thing." — Let- together in the jungle that one shot 

 ter in Appendix to Percival's the other, supposing the cry to 

 Ceylon, p. 428. The writer does proceed from the game. 



not say of what species they were. 3 Axis maculata, H. Smith. 



2 Rusa Aristotelis. Dr. Gray 4 Stylocerus muntjac, Horsf. 

 has lately shown that this is the 5 Mr. Blyth of Calcutta has 

 great axis of Cuvier. — Oss. Foss. distinguished, from the hog, com- 

 502, t. 39, f. 10. The Singhalese, mon in India, a specimen sent to 

 on following the elk, frequently him from Ceylon, the skull of which 

 effect their approaches by so imi- approaches in form, that of a spe- 

 tating the call of the animal as to cies from Borneo, the sus barbatus of 

 induce them to respond. An in- S. Miiller. 



