1.—Tail very short or clubbed.

2.—Tail elongate, with longer
hair at the end.

Red Deer and its near allies.

Antlers elaphine.

Mantchurian Deer.

Japanese Deer.

Fallow Deer.

Eld’s Deer.

Antlers rusine.

Barasingha Deer.

Hog Deer.

Schomburgk’s Deer.

Spotted Axis.

Sambur and its near allies.

Roebuck.

Antlers capreoline.

Chinese Elaphure.

This table is useful as a means of comparing the tails of the different genera; but other points of structure do not in the least support the classification suggested by that appendage, as a result of which it has to be ignored in the consideration of distant affinities, although, where questions of specific proximity are concerned, it is found to be of considerable value.

The antlers render much more trustworthy information in the determination and expression of relationships; and their characterising features can be most readily grasped by having an ideal type in the mind wherewith to compare all aberrant and complicated specimens. This ideal type may be derived in one or other of two ways. The first of these is from the study of the antlers as they are each year developed in any given kind of Deer, commencing with its earliest age. For example, in the Common Red Deer: in the spring of the year following its birth the antlers are nothing more than straight, conical, and unbranched “beams,” the animal being then known as a “Brocket.” In the following spring the antler has, besides the “beam,” a small branch from its base, directed forwards, known as the “brow antler;” it is then termed “Spayad.” In the third year an extra front branch is formed, known as the “tres,” and the whole antler is larger. This “tres” is sometimes seen in the smaller antler of the Spayad. In the fourth year the brow-antler is doubled, to form the “brow” and “bez-tyne,” at the same time that the top of the main beam divides into the “sur-royals” of the “Staggard,” or four-year male. In the fifth year the sur-royals become more numerous, the whole antler of the “Stag” being heavier than previously, only to be exceeded in weight by those of the fully adult “Great Hart,” with ten or more “points,” each being larger and longer than the year before. In Great Britain the conditions of life and the food are not of the quality which develops first-rate antlers, at the same time that it is—in Scotland, at least—the habit to shoot those with the finest heads, and so leave the indifferent specimens to perpetuate their species. In some of the ancient forests of Germany superb heads of the Red Deer are to be obtained, whilst in several of the old castles of that country antler trophies are preserved as memorials of sport in times gone by, with as many as six-and-sixty points. Lord Powerscourt has in his possession a pair with five-and-forty tynes.

The second way is from the study of the antlers of the species in which they are simple, in comparison with those in which they are particularly complex, both methods as they ought to do, leading to the same result. There are Deer—as, for example, the American Brockets, David’s Deer, and Reeves’ Muntjac—in which the antler is never more than a simple dag, like that of the “Brocket” stage in the Red Deer. There are others with never more than a single tyne besides the beam, as instances of which may be mentioned the Indian Muntjac and the Huamel. Others, again—and these form an important section of the family—are triply branched, as in the Spayad, the beam bifurcating some distance above the brow-antler. As instances of these we find the Sambur Deer of India, with its large and thus simple antlers; the closely-allied Javan and Swinhoe’s Deer; the Spotted Axis; the Hog Deer, and the Roebuck.

We have now arrived at the stage in which the beam has bifurcated, and almost all the more elaborate forms result from an excess in the development of both, or one or other, of the limbs of this bifurcation. In the Deer known as Elaphine—because they more or less resemble the Red Deer (Cervus elaphus)—the front of these two branches (the “tres”) does not increase or become complicated, whilst from the much-enlarged hind one the numerous sur-royals spring in the biggest species, such as the Wapiti, Cashmere, Red, and Barbary Deer, as well as the Maral, of Persia. In the smaller species which follow this type of structure the sur-royals are less developed, at the same time that the brow-antler does not split in two to form a “bez” as well, examples of which are to be seen in the Mantchurian, Formosan, and Japanese Deer, as well as in the Fallow Deer and its newly-discovered ally from Mesopotamia. These two last-named differ also in the “palmation” of their antlers—a peculiarity referred to further in the special description of the species.

VARIOUS TYPES OF ANTLERS.

(From the Proceedings of the Zoological Society.)

The accompanying outline diagram represents the most important types of antlers, to one or other of which those of almost every known Deer can be referred. To facilitate future description, they may be named as follows:—

Fig.

1.—Rusine type.

Fig.

4.—Extreme Rucervine type.

2.—Normal Rucervine type.

5.—Sub-elaphine type.

3.—Intermediate Rucervine type.

6.—Elaphine type.

(A) Brow-tyne. (B) Tres-tyne.(C) Royal-tyne.