The Hog-deer, allied to the last-named species, is an animal much better known, found as it is in many parts of India and Burma. This handsome little deer stands from 24 to 28 inches at the shoulder, and carries antlers which average from 10 to 15 inches, and reach occasionally as much as 21 or 22 inches—one specimen is recorded measuring 23¼ inches. It has a yellowish or reddish-brown coat, minutely speckled with white. The summer coat is paler and marked with white or palish-brown spots. This sturdy little deer is found usually in long grass, and affords excellent snap-shooting; it is also run into with dogs and speared by mounted sportsmen. Major Fitz-Herbert thus describes a chase of this kind: "He [the little stag] stood at bay, with head down and bristles raised like a miniature red deer of Landseer's, but broke away when I came up. Once he charged the bitch and knocked her over. He stood at bay two or three times, but I could never get a spear into him for fear of hurting the dogs. At last one time, as he was breaking bay, I came up, and he charged me with such force as to break one of his horns clean off against the spear. However, I struck him in the spine, and rolled him over." These little deer have quite extraordinary pluck, and have been known even to charge and wound a horse.
The Chital, or Indian Spotted Deer, often called the Axis Deer, a very beautiful species, is the common jungle-stag of India. Standing about 3 feet or a little over, its lovely coat of bright reddish fawn is thickly spotted with white at all seasons of the year. The horns are somewhat of the sambar type, and measure as much as 36 or 38 inches in length in fine specimens. These exquisite deer are often found in considerable herds, and are a forest-loving species.
The Swamp-deer, the true Barasingh of India, as distinguished from the Kashmir stag, which is often loosely called Barasingh, is a plain-loving species, found in various parts of India, and characterised by handsome antlers, bearing as many as from 10 to 16 points. This is a big, heavy deer, standing nearly 4 feet at the withers, and weighing as much as 40 stone. The summer coat is light rufous, more or less spotted with white. The winter coat is yellowish brown. A near relative to this deer is Schomburgk's Deer, found in Northern Siam. The antlers of this stag are most curiously forked and bifurcated.
Photo by the Duchess of Bedford] [Woburn Abbey.
MALE SIBERIAN ROE.
A very huge species of roebuck, with more rugged antlers than the European-roe.
The Thamin, or Eld's Deer, sometimes called the Brow-antlered Deer, is another plains-deer, found chiefly from Manipur, through Burma, to the Malay Peninsula. It is a good-sized species, standing about 3 feet 9 inches at the shoulder, and weighing as much as 17 stone. The large antlers are simple in type, the brow-tines curving down curiously over the forehead; the tail is sharp, and the neck provided with a mane, the young being spotted. A Siamese race of Eld's deer, found in Siam and Hainan, differs somewhat from the Burmese type.
The Muntjacs.
