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Show 1900.] MAMMALS OF SIAM AND THE MALAY PENINSULA. 373 (J. S. B. R. A. S. no. 26, 1894, p. 17) says :-" Cervus equinus, Cuv. Tracks of the Sambhur were seen on Gunong Janeng. This deer is probably common in the Johore jungles, but owing to its shy-nature is seldom seen." Ridley (J. S. B. R. A. S. no. 25, 1894, p. 60) records this species from Pahang, observing : " The Malayan Sambur, apparently the same as the Indian species, but the horus do not attain the same length " ; and (Nat. Science, vi. 1895, p. 164) says : - " The Cervus equinus is common in the Peninsula, and a few still occur in Singapore ; . . . . the young are produced singly, and are coloured like the adult, but with much softer hair. There are, however, faint traces of light spots on the rump, which disappear after the first week " L. Writing to me on 11th Sept., 1899, Ridley says: "Sambar breed regularly in the Singapore Gardens, and they also breed in Government House Park. The young usually have a couple of white spots on the sides near the rump, not very distinct. They are not fully spotted like Axis. I should say certainly that the Sumatran deer is a distinct animal, Cervus hippelaphus. It would not cross with the other deer " (i. e., Peninsula Sambar). In the Museum at Taiping there is a stuffed female from Upper Perak, aud antlers from Upper Perak, Batang Padang, and Larut. In December 1896 I saw a Sambar stag in a small patch of jungle within about a mile of the town of Taiping. In the Museum at Kuala Lumpor there are specimens from Selangor. The Sambar appears to be numerous iu parts of Siam ; we had a stuffed female and two pairs of antlers in the Siamese Museum. Distribution. India, Ceylon, Assam, Burma, Siam, Hainan, Malay Peninsula ; probably also parts of China, Formosa, Philippines, Borneo, and Sumatra. N.B.-CERVUS AXIS Erxl. The Chital, or Spotted Deer. Axis maculata, Cantor, p. 62. Cervus axis, Blanf. Faun. Ind., M a m m . p. 546. Cantor says this deer is called " Rusa Biinga " by the Malays of the Peninsula, and " It is numerous in Keddah, and at present in Pinang. But it did not inhabit Prince of Wales' Island (i.e. Pinang)till one of the last Governors of the late Presidency took the trouble of importing from Bengal some pairs, which were kept in the park adjoining Government House (Suffolk House). When the Presidency of Prince of Wales' Island was abolished, the deer of the quondam Governor's park found their way into the jungle, where they have multiplied to a prodigious extent." Nowadays they have disappeared from Penang, and it seems Cantor must have beeu mistaken in recording them from Kedah ; the local Malays assured me no spotted deer existed there. 1 A Sambar born in 1899 in the Ghizeh Zoological Gardens (original locality of parents unknown) had at first a very distinct black vertebral line from between the ears to the tail. PROC. ZOOL. Soc-1900, No. XXV. 25 |