220 



Catalogue of Mammalia 



[Oct- 



Berka, 

 Purka, 



has a stronger heavier appearance. The same differences are percepti- 

 ble in the domesticated individuals of the two countries. 



50. — Moschus Memina, Erxleben.— ifcfcmwa, Knox. — Ceylon p. 21.— 

 Pissay, Ham. Voy. E. IncL I. p. 261. 



Canarese...o^^^^ 



Pisei, > Mahratta C 



Pisuri, S of the Ghats % 



Common in the forest and even occasionally seen in the Mulnad? 



51. — Cervus (Rusa) Hippelaphus, Cuv. 



Kadatri Canarese r ot$& 



C Mahratta} 

 S amber <J and V ^A^cLs 



(Dekhani ) 



n „. 7 < Erroneously 



liar a &mha < 



C of Mahomed ans 



Meru Mahratta of the ghats. 



There is only one species of Rusa found in the Weste.rn forests, which 

 is common also to all the heavy jungles of Southern India. None of 

 the descriptions given by Hamilton Smith to the different Indian' species, 

 under the names of Hippelaphus, Aristotelis, Equ'mus, apply exactly to 

 it: but I have little doubt that all three are only varieties of the great 

 Indian stag, originally described by Aristotle under the designation of 

 Hippelaphus, and discriminated as such by M. Duvancel, in the Asiatic 

 Researches, vol. xv. p. 174; to which it is not improbable the C. Uni- 

 color or Gona of Ceylon, is also referable. 



The points of distinction that have been noticed are, the characters of 

 the horns, size, colour, absence or presence of a disk on the buttocks, 

 canine teeth, and minute distinctions in the proportions of the bones of 

 the skull. 



The horns of different individuals present great diversities of form. 

 The only common characters are those of a basal antler, springing di- 

 rectly and equally with the beam from the burr; and the beam termi- 

 nating in a bifurcated extremity, formed by a branch or snag separating 

 posteriorly and pointing obliquely to the rear. But I have met with in- 

 stances of medial antlers, of trifurcated extremities, and in one case, 

 with the extremity showing a fourfold division, as in the annexed sketch 

 of a Samber killed by Captain Green, Madras Engineers, in the Bella- 

 rungin Hills between Mysore and Coimbatore. Plate^4 fig. 1. 



