SUPPLEMENT.
In the year 1777, M. Vosmaër published a description of this animal, which he calls the Small Beautiful Buck of Guinea, and from whom we have extracted the following account. “This was one of the most beautiful animals I ever saw; it was sent from Guinea with thirteen others of both sexes, but twelve of them died in their voyage to Holland, and those two which survived were males; these were put into the menagerie of the Prince of Orange, and one of them died the following winter, 1764. They are remarkable timid animals, and are much frightened at any noise, especially at thunder. When they are suddenly surprised, they express their fear by whistling strongly with their nose. The one now living, (in 1766) though very wild at first, is now so familiar, that upon holding a piece of bread to him, and calling him by the name they have given him of tetje, he will not only approach, but allow himself to be stroaked. He is a particularly clean animal, and will not suffer the smallest piece of dirt to remain on any part of his body, but is constantly scratching himself with his hind feet. He is very active, and when standing still, keeps one of his fore-legs rather in a bent position, which gives him a graceful appearance. He eats bread, rye, carrots, is fond of potatoes, and is a ruminating animal. His horns are rather large in proportion to his size, and he has a small quantity of hair between them which he rises to a point. He is about the size of a young kid of two months old, and his limbs are extremely well proportioned. His head somewhat resembles that of a roe-buck; his nose is black and naked, but always moist; his upper lip appears as if divided; he has no beard but a kind of small whiskers on the sides, and a wart covered with hair under his chin; his horns are black, about three inches long, quite straight, and end with a sharp point; they are furnished with three rings, which rise a little backward; from the black tuft between the horns, there is a stripe of that colour down to the nose; his ears are large, with some short hairs on the insides, and on the tops, but all the other parts of them are black and naked; the eyes are large, and of a deep brown, between the eyes and nose there are black cavities, from the middle of which a viscid gummy humour exudes, that soon becomes hard and black, but I could never perceive that it contained that odour which Dr. Grimmius and those who have followed him, describe it to possess; the upper part of the neck and the head are of a yellowish grey, the back black, the sides a bright brown, the belly grey, and the limbs white as far as his knees; his legs have a black band, and the hair becomes blackish towards the hoofs; he had no heels, his feet were cloven, he had beautiful black pointed hoofs, and his tail was very short and white, with a black band on the upper part.”
We have given the name of Chevrotain (tragulus) to the small animals of the warm regions of Africa and Asia, which almost every traveller has mentioned by the denomination of the little stag, or little hind. In fact, the chevrotain is a miniature resemblance of the stag, from the shape of its muzzle, lightness of its body, shortness of tail, and form of its legs; but differs greatly in size, the largest never exceeding that of the hare. Some of them are entirely without horns, and those which have any, are hollow, annulated, and nearly resemble those of the gazelles. Their small cloven foot, is also more like that of the gazelle than of the stag; and they differ both from the gazelle and the stag, by not having any depressions or hollows under their eyes: in that particular they approach the goat, but in reality they are neither stags, gazelles, nor goats, but constitute one or more distinct species. Seba gives the figures and descriptions of five chevrotains. The first he calls the little red Guinea kind without horns; the second, the fawn, or the young delicate stag of Africa; the third, the little young stag of Guinea; the fourth, the little red and white hind of Surinam; and the fifth, the red-haired African stag. Of these five chevrotains, the first, second, and third, are evidently the same animal; the fifth, which is larger than the three first, and whose hair is much stronger, and of a deep yellow, seems to be only a variety of the first; the fourth, which the author mentions as an animal of Surinam, appears to be only a second variety of this species, which is found only in Africa and the southern parts of Asia; and I am greatly inclined to think that Seba was misinformed, when he says this animal came from Surinam. Every traveller, who speaks of these little stags, mentions them as being found in Senegal, Guinea, and the East Indies; but not one affirms that he has seen them in America; and if the spotted chevrotain which Seba speaks of, did really come from Surinam, we must presume that it had been transported from Guinea, or from some other southern province of the old continent. But there appears to be a second species of chevrotain, different from all those we have mentioned, which seem to be only simple varieties of the first. This second species has small horns, not more than an inch in length, and the same in circumference: these horns are hollow, black, somewhat crooked, very sharp at the points, and surrounded at the bottom with two or three transverse rings. We have seen the feet and one of the horns of this animal in the royal cabinet, which sufficiently demonstrate it is either a chevrotain or a very small gazelle. Kolbe, speaking of this animal, says, it has horns like those of the stag, and that the branches were in proportion to their age; this is an evident error, which a single inspection of the horns will clearly prove.
These animals are of an elegant make, and their limbs finely proportioned for their size. But though they leap and bound with prodigious swiftness, yet, apparently, they cannot continue it long, for the Indians often hunt and frequently knock them down with their sticks: they are greatly sought after on account of the superior excellence of their flesh.
By comparing the different testimonies of travellers it appears, first, that the chevrotain without horns is peculiar to the East Indies; secondly, that the one with horns is the chevrotain of Senegal, and which is called guevei by the natives; thirdly, that only the male guevei is furnished with horns; fourthly, that the chevrotain marked with white spots, and which Seba says comes from Surinam, is, on the contrary, a native of the East Indies, especially of Ceylon, where it is called memina, ([fig. 158.]) and we must therefore, conclude, that there are but two kinds of chevrotains, namely, the memina, ([fig. 157.]) or the Indian chevrotain without horns; and the guevei, or Guinea chevrotain with horns; that the five species spoken of by Seba are only varieties of the memina; and that the smallest kind, which in Senegal is called guevei-kaior, is only a variety of the guevei.
These little animals can only live in excessive hot climates; they are so exceedingly delicate that it is with the greatest difficulty they are transported into Europe alive, where they perish in a short time. They are gentle, familiar, and very beautiful. They are, unquestionably, the smallest of all cloven-footed animals. According to this character of being cloven footed, they should not bring forth many young; but if we reason from their small size they should produce several at a litter. As to the fact on this point we must wait until opportunity is procured to make the observation; we are inclined to think they bring forth but one or two at a time, like the gazelles, roe-bucks, &c. but possibly they produce more frequently, for they are exceedingly numerous in India, Java, Ceylon, Senegal, Congo, and in every other country that is excessively hot, but are not to be found in America, nor in any of the temperate climates of the old continent.