Mazame, in the Mexican language, was the name of the stag, or rather a generic name, including the whole race of stags, fallow-deer, and roe-bucks. Hernandes, Recchi, and Fernandes, who have transmitted this name to us, distinguish two species of mazames, both common in Mexico and New Spain. The first and largest, to which they give the simple name of mazame, has horns like those of the roe-buck of Europe, that is, about six or seven inches in length, with the extremities divided into two points, and a single antler. The second, called temamaçame, is much less, and has but a single horn, and without any antlers. These two animals seem to be roe-bucks, the first being the same species as the European roe-buck, and the second only a variety of it. It also appears, that these mazames and temamaçames of Mexico are the same as the cuguacu-apara, and the cuguacu-été of Brasil, and that in Cayenne the first is called cariacou, ([fig. 157.]) or the forest hind; the second, the small cariacou, or the hind of the marshes. Though we are the first who have pointed out these relations, yet we should not have presumed that there were either difficulties or doubts on this subject, if Seba had not mentioned the mazame and the temamaçame as two different animals: they are not roe-bucks with solid and branched horns, but gazelles with hollow and wrinkled ones: they are not animals of New Spain, as this author describes them, but natives of Africa. These errors of Seba have been adopted by most authors who have written since. They have not suspected that the animals mentioned by Seba, under the names of mazame and temamaçame, were the same as those mentioned by Hernandes, Recchi, and Fernandes. The confusion of the names has been followed by a confusion of the animals, and, in consequence, some naturalists have indicated these animals by the name of chevrotains, and others by that of gazelles, or goats. It appears that Linnæus suspected this error, for he has not adopted it. He has placed the mazame in the list of stags, and has thought, as we do, that the Mexican mazame is the same animal as the cuguacu of Brasil.
To demonstrate what we have advanced, we will suppose that there were neither gazelles, nor chevrotains, in New Spain, or in any other part of America, and that all those, as well as goats, which are at present there, have been carried from the old continent; that the true mazame of Mexico is the same animal as the cuguacu-apara of Brasil; that the name cuguacu is pronounced couguacou; and that, by corruption, this animal is called cariacou at Cayenne, from whence we had a living one sent us by this name of cariacou. We shall now endeavour to find out what species of animals these may be to which Seba has applied the names mazame and temamaçame, for to destroy an error it is not sufficient to reject it, but we should also explain the cause and demonstrate the effects.
The gazelles and chevrotains inhabit only the hottest countries of the Old World; they cannot exist in temperate climates, and still less in those that are cold. They could not, therefore, have ever frequented the northern countries, and have passed, by that means, from one continent to the other; nor have any travellers or historians of the New World, ever pretended to have seen them in that part of the globe. On the contrary, stags and roe-bucks, which inhabit cold and temperate climates, might have passed over the northern lands, and therefore are met with in both continents. We have observed, in our history of the stag, that the Cardian stag is the same as that of Europe; that he is only smaller, and has some slight variations in the shape of his horns and the colour of his hair. We may add, to what has been already said, that in America there are as many varieties among stags as in Europe, notwithstanding which they are of the same species. One of these varieties is the Corsican stag, which is smaller and browner than the common kind. We have also mentioned white stags, and hinds, and have said, that this colour proceeds from their domestic state; this kind is also found in America, as well as our common and small brown stags. The Mexicans, who keep these white stags in their parks, have denominated them Royal Stags. It is a native of Germany, and commonly called the Stag of Ardennes; and Brandhirts, by the Germans: it is at least as big as the large French stags, but differs from them by several particular characters. Its coat is thicker, and of a lighter colour under its belly: its throat and neck is furnished with long hairs, like the he-goat, which has caused both ancients and moderns to give it the name of tragelaphus, or stag-like goat. There are also a great number of roe-bucks in America: we are only acquainted with two varieties in Europe, the red and the brown; the latter are smaller than the former, but they perfectly resemble each other. The mazame of Mexico, the cuguacu-apara of Brasil, and the cariacou, or forest hind of Cayenne, entirely resemble our red roe-bucks. Comparing the descriptions given of them is a sufficient proof, that all these names denote the same animal. But the temamaçame, which we suppose to be the cuguacu-été of Brasil, the small cariacou of Cayenne may be a variety different from those of Europe. The temamaçame is less, and whiter on the belly than the mazame, in the same manner as our brown roe-buck has a whiter belly, and is smaller than our red one; it seems also to differ by the horns, which is single and without antlers in the figure given by Recchi; but if we consider that our roe-bucks, and stags, have no antlers in the first, and sometimes even in the second year of their age, we shall be inclined to think, that Recchi’s temamaçame was too young to have antlers: these two animals, therefore, appear to be only simple varieties in the roe-buck species.
It now remains to enquire what these two animals, mentioned by Seba, by the false names of mazame and temamaçame really are. The bare inspection of the figures, independently of his description, demonstrates, that these animals belong to the goats or gazelles, and not to the stags or roe-bucks. The want of a beard, and the shape of the horns, prove, they are not goats, but gazelles; and, by comparing Seba’s figures with the gazelles which we have described, I found that his pretended temamaçame of New Spain, is the kob, or little brown cow of Senegal. The figure, colour, and size of the horns are the same; the colour of the hair is also the same, and differs from that of other gazelles, by not being white, but yellow under the belly and upon the flanks. With respect to the pretended mazame, although it resembles the gazelles in general, yet it differs in particular from all those we have before enumerated; but we saw in M. Adanson’s cabinet, where he has collected the most rare productions of Senegal, a stupid animal which we call nagor, by reason of the resemblance of its horns with those of the nanguer. This animal is found in the neighbouring island of Goree, from whence he was sent to M. Adanson by M. Andriot, and possesses all the characters which Seba gives to his pretended mazame; its body is of a pale red, and its belly is not white, like the other gazelles; it is of the size of the roe-buck; its horns are not six inches long, almost smooth, and slightly bent forwards, but not so much as those of the nanguer. Therefore this animal, mentioned by Seba, by the name of mazame, or American stag, is only an African goat, or gazelle, which we have added here by the name of the nagor to the twelve other gazelles, whose history we have already given.
