INDIAN MUNTJAC.
In China the Muntjacs are smaller than those of India and Java; their antlers are less developed at the same time that the tint of their coats is less rufous, and the neck is not white. They were first described by Mr. Ogilby under the name of Reeves’ Muntjac, a larger form having been more recently discovered by M. A. Milne-Edwards and Mr. Swinhoe. With reference to its habits the last-named naturalist tells us that “this species affects the low ranges of hills which are covered with long, coarse grass and tangled thicket. It is there usually found in small herds, basking in the sun, or lying in hidden lairs. They are very seldom approached near, except by stealth. The least noise startles them, and they dash away with bounds through the yielding grass, occasionally showing their rounded backs above the herbage. They have, however, their regular creeps and passes through the covert, near which the natives lie when stalking them, while others drive them. The little startled creatures hurry from danger along these beaten tracks, and are then picked off with the matchlock.” In captivity they soon become very docile, even when taken in the adult state. The flesh of this animal is very tender and palatable.
The enterprising missionary Père David, among his numerous discoveries in Chinese zoology, sent from Moupin, in Western China, to Paris, skins of a peculiar Muntjac, which is of special interest. Having canine tusks, a black frontal hairy horseshoe, and the proportions of a Muntjac generally, its antlers are not more than an inch long, at the same time that their pedestals are correspondingly reduced in length as well as thickness. Its body-colour is mouse-brown, verging on grey, whilst the hairy covering is coarse. It may be called DAVID’S MUNTJAC.
Very shortly after the above-mentioned skins arrived at Paris, Mr. Michie, of Shanghai, forwarded to Mr. Swinhoe in England another specimen from Ningpo, which, although derived so far east of Moupin, is almost indistinguishable from that belonging to the latter district. The animal is there known as the “Shanyang,” or Wild Goat. It is an undoubted Muntjac, although peculiar in not possessing the glands on the forehead found in the more common species.
THE ROEBUCK.[39]
This elegant, small, and almost tailless Deer is, like the Red Deer, a native of Great Britain, as well as of all Northern Europe and Asia below the line of perpetual snow. In Asia the individuals attain a greater size than in Europe. The adult Roebuck stands a little over two feet high at the shoulder. Its colour is a dark reddish-brown in summer, becoming yellowish-grey in the cold weather. There is a large patch of white on the rump. The antlers, which are peculiarly near together at their bases, rarely exceed a foot in length, possessing three points, the rugose unbranched beam continuing from the considerable burr for half a foot unbranched; then bifurcating fore and aft, the posterior branch again bifurcating. The destruction of the forests throughout Britain has driven the Roebuck farther north, till now it is most common in the north of Scotland, although it still survives in the woods of Westmoreland and Cumberland. Its disposition is wild, shy, and cautious. Its favourite resort is the thick underwood of forests, living singly or in small companies of a pair with their young, which latter—contrary to what we find in the case of most other Deer—are two or three in number. Its venison makes very indifferent food.
ROEBUCK: MALE, FEMALE, AND YOUNG.
THE CHINESE WATER DEER.[40]
This is an entirely isolated small species, not bigger than an Indian Muntjac, discovered by Mr. Swinhoe, in which there are no antlers, the canine teeth of the upper jaw being developed into immense tusks which project downwards, as in the Musk and Muntjacs. The legs are short, and the body lengthy. The body-colour is a light red-brown all over. There is no tuft of hair on the head as in the Muntjacs, to which by some it might be imagined to be allied. From Mr. Swinhoe’s account of the species we learn that “In the large riverine islands of the Yangtsze, above Chinkiang, these animals occur in large numbers, living among the tall rushes that are there grown for thatching and other purposes. The rushes are cut down in the spring; and the Deer then swim away to the main shore and retire to the cover of the hills.... Fortunately for the Deer, the Chinese have an extraordinary dislike for their flesh. I could not ascertain why; but it must be from some strange superstition, as the Celestials are otherwise pretty omnivorous. The Deer are killed only for the European markets [of Shanghai], and sold at a low price. Their venison is coarse, and without much taste.... The Chinese at Shanghai call this animal the Ke, but at Chinkiang they are named Chang—the classical term for the Muntjac.”