ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 67 
muddy hollows in which it rolls and covers itself with 
a layer of mud to protect itself from the flies. 
In the neighbouring compound are usually numerous 
examples of the well-known Spotted Deer of India, Cervus 
axis , than which there is perhaps no more handsome of the 
deer tribe. In the adult male, the antlers are about three 
times the length of the head, with a brow-antler forming 
a slightly obtuse angle with the beam, which divides a 
little above the half of its entire length into two tines, the 
anterior or external tine so formed being excessively long. 
These characters distinguish the sub-genus Axis, as defined 
by Sir Victor Brooke, whose classification of the deer has 
been fojlowed. Unlike the sub-genus Pseudaxis , the males 
and females are always spotted. This deer is spread over 
Central and Southern India, along the outer ranges of 
the Sub-Himalaya and the Terai region, and is very 
abundant in the Sundarban of Bengal, but it does not ex¬ 
tend further to the eastward, nor is it found in the 
Panjab. Two or three races have been recognized, but 
the differences are very slight, and chiefly depend upon the 
slimness or greater heaviness of the antlers, and perhaps 
also on the size of the deer, which varies in different 
localities and is doubtless influenced by its food supply. 
In the Sundarban, this deer may be seen in immense 
herds on the islands of the Delta, close to the sea- 
face, and where the most beautiful open glades occur 
of considerable extent, surrounded by dense forest and 
covered with the most exquisite velvety turf on which the 
herds graze morning and evening, retiring to the shade 
of the forest during the heat of. the day. In these places 
they constitute the food of one of the largest of the Indian 
Carnivora—the Tiger. This deer sheds its horns generally 
