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Show 1892.] MR. P. L. SCLATER ON HEADS OF ANTELOPES. 117 some of the officers who accompanied the Mission under Sir D. Forsyth sent by the Government of India to Yarkand and Kashgar in 1873; and by Colonel Prejvalski, who found this Deer common around the Lower Tarim and Lobnor in 1876, and noticed it (Pet. Mitth., Erg. Heft, No. 53, p. 9) as Cervus maral. In the ' M a m malia' of the Scientific Results of the Second Yarkand Mission, p. 92, this animal is mentioned, and a photograph of its horns obtained by Mr. R. Shaw noticed. From the photograph it was surmised that the horns resembled those of C. affinis. Several fine heads have since been obtained by Mr. A. O. H u me from Yarkand; of these three are now in the British Museum. All are very similar : they have 5 tines on each horn, as is generally the case in C. cashmirianus and C. affinis, but differ greatly from the last named in the curve of the beam, and somewhat from C. cashmirianus, to which, however, they appear very closely allied. At the same time the horns of the Tarim Stag appear always distinguishable as spreading less and by the terminal tine never being curved inwards to anything like the extent that it is in C. cashmirianus. There is very little resemblance to O. maral, in which the crown appears to consist of more than two tines. C. maral, C. cashmirianus, and some other Deer may be ultimately classed as subspecies of C. elaphus. The Yarkand Stag is apparently another subspecies, distinguished by its unusually straight horns. As a distinctive name is useful for these races, each of which appears to occupy a small isolated area, the name C. yarkandensis may be applied to the Yarkand and Tarim Deer as a subspecific name, it being understood that the form is not regarded as specifically distinct from C. cashmirianus. The skin of the body is unusually pale in colour, with a well marked caudal disk. Mr. Sclater exhibited and made remarks on some " Spinning or Japanese Mice," as a particoloured breed of Mus musculus or one of its allies, now commonly kept in captivity, is usually called. The curious habit of spinning round and round after their tails like a kitten was highly developed in this breed and continually exercised. It was very difficult to imagine a reason how this habit originated, and why it was so readily inherited. Mr. Sclater exhibited a series of mounted heads of Antelopes belonging to Capt. H. G. C. Swayne, R.E., and made the following remarks:- M y communication upon Capt. Swayne's Antelopes to the last meeting having been rather hurried owing to stress of time, I thought it might interest the Society to examine Capt. Swayne's private collection of heads, which have been beautifully mounted for him by Messrs. Rowland Ward & Co. of Piccadilly, and kindly sent here for exhibition. |
