The BROCKETS are equally small, with minute antlers of a most simple form—whence the name—they being unbranched and shelving backwards. The colour of the fur in the Guava Viva and Brazilian Brocket is pale brown, and shining red-brown in the Red Brocket and the Eyebrowed Brocket.
The VENADA, OR PUDU DEER, is not bigger than Reeves’ Muntjac or a Hare. Its colour is red-brown, and it has minute antlers, not far separated from one another. It inhabits the western coast of South America.
THE CHEVROTAINS, OR DEERLETS.[44]
It is not until within the last few years that naturalists have separated off from the true Deer a group of diminutive animals which look like them in miniature, but are entirely destitute of antlers. These little creatures, known as Chevrotains, for which we take the liberty of coining the name Deerlets, were placed together with the Musk into a single section, characterised by the fact that the males possess large tusks situated in the upper jaw, which project downwards, and are conspicuous even when the mouth is fully closed, grooving the lower lip on each side. Now, however, they are entirely separated off from the Deer and Ox tribes, to constitute an independent family, because of the peculiarities of many of their parts. They have a complex stomach composed of paunch, honeycomb-bag, and reed, the manyplies being so much reduced in size, that it may practically be said not to be present.
From the bones of their feet it is evident, too, that they cannot be correctly classed with the more ordinary Ruminants, and that they tend towards the other family of the Cloven-hoofed Ungulata, namely, the Swine. Each foot of the common Pig possesses four toes, that corresponding to our thumb in the fore-limb, and to our great toe in the hind being absent, as has been previously explained. The bones of all these toes are quite separate from one another, as in those of man, at the same time that those of the outer and inner digits in each limb are smaller than those which bear the larger hoofs. In the true Ruminants and in the Camel tribe these larger toes are partly fused together, the bones of digit three and digit four corresponding to those situated in the human palm and sole, being joined from end to end to form the “cannon-bone;” whilst those of digit two and digit five are reduced to mere imperfect splinters, or are sometimes altogether lost, as in the Giraffe and in the Camel. Now, in the Deerlets, these bones are not blended at all in the fore-limbs of the Water Deerlet of West Africa, in which, as in all the other species, digit two and digit five are perfect from end to end. They therefore stand, in this respect, as in others easily explained, intermediate between the Swine and the true Ruminants.
JAVAN DEERLET.
All the Deerlets are particularly delicate, diminutive, and graceful animals, the slenderness and clear-cut outline of their limbs being exceedingly striking. With bodies as big as that of a Hare or Rabbit, their legs are not so thick as a cedar pen-holder or a clay pipe-stem. Their proportions are very much those of the small Water Bucks of Africa, and of many of the kinds of Deer, especially the Hog Deer of India, in which the body, as in them, is not carried very high above the ground. The want of antlers in both sexes makes them resemble Hinds rather than Stags at first sight, whilst their elegantly-pointed noses, and large dark eyes, add to their general interesting appearance.
Of the Deerlets there are five species—the Meminna, the Kanchil, the Javan, the Stanleyan, and the Water Deerlets. The first four are confined to India, Ceylon, Malacca, Java, and Sumatra, the last being found in Sierra Leone and the Gambia district. These differ slightly in their size and markings, the MEMINNA, or INDIAN DEERLET, being nearly eighteen inches long, and about eight inches high at the shoulder, the tail being very short. As in its allies, the white spotting of the surface is disturbed by two or more streaks of the same which run along the flanks.
The JAVAN DEERLET, known sometimes as the Napu, is smaller than the preceding. It is of a rust-brown colour above and white beneath, three white stripes radiating backwards, one along the middle line, and the other two laterally from the front of the neck. The short tail is white-tipped. The naked and moist muzzle is black. The Javan Deerlet is gentle in disposition, and somewhat uninteresting in captivity. Specimens are frequently brought to Great Britain, and live if carefully protected from the cold.