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Show 656 MR. R. SWINHOE ON THE [Dec. 9, animals. They have none so young as my first four; but the same irregularity of the growth of tines and snags and the variability of the horn obtains among them. M y old single horns, with flattened tips, afford connecting-links between those of Panolia acuticornis, Gray, from Pegu, and of P. platyceros, Gray, from Siam. Mr. Blyth is of opinion that " the Hainan Panolia is identical with that of Siam (P. platyceros oi Gray), the distinction from the other, or western form, being apparent as the horns increase in size." The Chinese do not value the hide of the Panolia, as they consider it too thin for useful purposes. They are therefore rarely brought from the mountains, and I had much difficulty in procuring the skins above referred to. The Chinese destroy this Deer, as they do all others, for the young horn. The native work on Hainan makes no distinction between this and other spotted Deer. It simply gives, " Deer (spotted). The male is the Kia, the female the Yew, the fawn the Me. Its young horns are like pink brinjals, three or four inches in length, and lovely fresh red; but in a very short time their tops decay and their bases get dry. If you break one it is like hard wood inside. These horns are called * pink horns,' and are not equal to the product of Szechuen." This Deer is called Liak in the Hainan dialect. 3. Of the Hainan Sambur I have three pairs of horns, and the skins of a male and female, both adult, in winter coat. The skin of the male has coarse and stiffish hair, which is softer in the female. The former has blackish-brown on the forehead and between the horns, fading into a brown line along the back of the neck, which broadens and blends away along the back. In the female the neck-hair is shorter and the liue more distinct. General colour of the male skin umber-brown, deeper on the back. Fore legs deeper-coloured on the outer surface, buff-white on the under and between the legs. Breast with softer and more woolly hair, of a blackish umber-brown. Belly, under hind legs, and buttocks white. The upper hair terminates at the buttocks and thighs with chestnut, which is followed by the white of the under sides. Hind legs deep umber, white on their inner sides. Hair of the hind neck and back with light brown basal halves; that of the sides with white bases, which gives a grizzly appearance in some lights. The female fur is softer and of a more uniform colour, with a wash of chestnut, which is rather darker and richer on the rump. The white on the under parts is disposed as in the male. The male skin measures, from behind the horns to the root of the tail, 4\ feet, the female skin 3 feet 8 inches. The grizzled appearance of the fur struck me at once as peculiar, and I felt sure that I had got a Sambur different from the dark Formosan race. In this respect it is very similar to the skins of the Indian Sambur, but approaches the C. rusa of Java iu the whiteness of the under parts. M y three pairs of antlers, which are of different ages, are all characterized by having the hind prong of the apical fork short. The youngest pair (fig. 4, a) I take to have belonged to an animal of two years, the second pair (fig. 4, b) to an animal of three years, and the |
