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Show 1875.] DEER FROM MESOPOTAMIA. 263 general conformation of the skull and the markings of the skin sent by Mr. Robertson so closely resembled those of the common Fallow Deer, that I was inclined to believe the Mesopotamian specimens to be referable to this species, the peculiarities in the horns, which were in velvet, and about half-grown (fig. 1), being attributable to abnormality. A closer examination, however, revealed characters which showed me that this first impression was incorrect, and convinced me that, though more closely allied to Dama vulgaris than to any other existing Deer, the specimens appertained to a new and very interesting species. Wishing, if possible, to avoid founding the species upon the examination of a single specimen, I considered it better to await the results of Mr. Robertson's indefatigable exertions to obtain more materials before introducing the species to the Society's notice. A short time subsequently I received a letter from Mr. Robertson, in which he thus writes:-"I received your last letter when on the point of setting out for a few days' shooting on the Karoon, where I hoped to get a good head of the Spotted Deer, but have not succeeded. I only saw one specimen, a doe. At some distance I examined her through a field-glass, and observed that her colour was considerably darker and duller than that of the buck (shot in March), whose skin I sent to Mr. Sclater (Plate XXXVIII.). Her spots, however, were as marked as usual; and I am pretty sure that I have seen Spotted Deer on the Karoon at all seasons of the year. The other Fig. 2. rf.-_A^g| C < c ^ sW.'k CC fe^^fflHb Antler of Cervus (Dama) mesopotamicus, picked up near the Karoon. Deer which I mentioned as inhabiting the same jungles is rather smaller and always brown. I send you two cast horns, which I have marked 1 and 2 (see fig. 2, p. 263, and fig. 3, p. 264). The former was picked up near the Karoon, and is that, I think, of a brown Deer ; the latter I got from a friend, who could only tell m e that it came from Shuster. It is, I believe, a fully developed horn of a Spotted |