OCR Text |
Show 1877.] ON THE ANATOMY OF THE CHINESE WATER-DEER. 789 lines below the suckers (the proliferating area), is 3 millimetres. The breadth of the largest of the proglottides is 3*1 centimetres, their depth being 4*5 millimetres. One decimetre from the end of the scolex the proglottides are 1*42 centimetre in breadth. In one respect the scolex differs from that described by Dr. Peters, the rostellum or little conical elevation between the suckers being scarcely even indicated as such. This, however, seems hardly sufficient to justify specific separation. It is an interesting fact that three different species of Rhinoceros, so separated in their distribution, should be troubled with the same tapeworm, which must therefore, unvarying, have followed the ancestral species in its different variations, now so easily distinguishable. 6. Notes on the Anatomy of the Chinese Water-Deer (Hydropotes inermis). By A . H . G A R R O D , M.A., F.R.S., Prosector to the Society. [Eeceived October 1, 1877.] Since the discovery by Mr. Swinhoe of the Chinese Water-Deer, which in the ' Proceedings ' of this Society 1 he named Hydropotes inermis, naturalists have been anxious to obtain information upon its visceral anatomy, together with other features not ascertainable from adult skins or from the skeleton. At Tours our Corresponding Member M . J. Comely has succeeded in breeding the species2, the Society having allowed him the loan of its male specimen, and his example being of the opposite sex. One of the three young ones, a female, having died shortly after its birth, M . Comely forwarded it to Mr. Sclater, who has kindly placed it in m y hands for description ; and it is m y notes upon this specimen which I take an opportunity of laying before the Society. From the tip of the nose to the base of the tail the specimen is 16 inches, the tail being an inch long. From the top of the shoulder to the tip of the hoof of the fore limb it measures 12 inches. The colour of the hair, after being in spirit for some days and then dried, is a dark greyish brown, which is redder along the back than at the sides. The abdomen, as well as the throat, is a dirty white, as are the hairy inner surfaces of the ears. The fawn is spotted with white 3. The spots are not numerous or pronounced. They run in longitudinal lines from the neck to the tail, with a median area about 1*5 inch broad unspotted. There is one line, the upper, fairly defined and uninterrupted; two others, lower down, are irregular and shorter. The spots are not distinct, 1 P. Z. S. 1870, p. 89. 2 See M . Cornely's article in Bull. Soc. dAcclim. 3e ser. t. iv. p. 417; and note, P. Z. S. 1877, p. 533. 3 In the Society's ' Proceedings,' 1872, p. 817, Mr. Swinhoe remarks, " I learn from Mr. Eussell that the fawn is spotted with dark-brown spots all over the hind quarters." I could not detect any trace of these. |