1839] 



in the Southern Mahratta Country. 



22 i 



The size of the Southern Rusa is large, sometimes exceeding 14 hands 

 in height. The colour varies from dark brown to dark greyish black or 

 slate-black j with the "chin, the inner sides of the limbs, the under part 

 of the tail, and the space between the buttocks, yellowish white,passing 

 into orange yellow, but never extending into a large circular disk on 

 the buttocks. In several instances I have met with the hinds of a pale 

 yellow or light chesnut colour. These were young individuals, but] the 

 shikaries always declared them to be the same as the common kind, and 

 no other difference was perceptible. The cranium of one of these light 

 coloured females presents no structural differences from that of a young 

 black female. Both sexes have canine teeth in the upper jaw, springing 

 from the suture between the maxillary and intermaxillary bones. The 

 neck and throat are clothed with a long mane. The suborbi- 

 tal sinus is very large. "When the animal is excited, or angry, or 

 frightened, it is opened very large, and can hs distended at pleasure. 

 The new horns are soft and tender during the monsoon , from June to 

 September, about which time the rutting season commences. The stags 

 are then fierce and bold. I have seen one, when suddenly disturbed, 

 face the intruder for a moment, shaking his head, bristling his mane, 

 distending the suborbital sinus and then dashing into the cover. 



52>-—Cervus Jlxis, Erxleben. 



Sarunq > ^ "^H)^07\ 



V Canarese 

 Saraga.. . . > ~VR> o 7\ 



{Mahratta 

 and Dekhani 0*?J>- 



53.— Cervus Munijdk, Zimmermann. 



KanJcuri Canarese "TO e w 8 



Jungli BuJcra. .Dekhani J^j ^J&j*. 



Bekra Mahratta 



This animal does not seem to differ in any respect from the Kijang of 

 the Eastern Islands. 



A young male of this species was in my possession for many months, 

 and was quite tame. It was of a deep chesnut colour, which becomes 

 browner as the animal grows older. On the face appeared the plaits 

 or ribs of skin between the eyes, running up to the fore-head and end- 

 ing in a triangular patch of stiff hairs of a. dark brown colour, at the up- 

 per side of which the horn afterwards sprouted, making its first appear- 



