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Show 34 SIR V. BROOKE ON THE GENUS CERVULUS. [Jan. 6, of this form-Cervulus muntjac, Cervulus reevesi, and Cervulus sclateri. Of these Cervulus muntjac has the most southern, Cervulus sclateri the most northern, and Cervulus reevesi, the intermediate range. This being so, analogy would lead us to look for intermediate structural characters in the species of intermediate range ; but such is not the case in the present instance, Cervulus sclateri being intermediate in size and character to the other two species. In the three species the size of the frontal and suborbital glands increases in inverse ratio to the size of the species ; hence the principal differences exhibited by their skulls, that of Cervulus reevesi being much more compressed from above downwards, and, if measurement be taken from the most outwardly projecting parts of the maxillae, much wider in comparison with its length than that of either of the other species. These characters Cervulus sclateri exhibits in a degree intermediate between Cervulus reevesi, and Cervulus muntjac. Mr. Swinhoe has sent home a young specimen * of Cervulus, which he identifies as the young of Cervulus sclateri; in the upper part of its back and sides it is dappled with distinct yellowish spots, this specimen is stuffed in the British Museum (1620 c, Gray, Hand-list, p. 165). * In the British Museum there is also a specimen of a very young Cervulus reevesi, said to have been sent from Amoy by Mr. Swinhoe (1524 d, I.e. p. 165): this specimen shows no sign of spots, the fur being annulated as in the adult. The young of Cervulus muntjac is spotted; it would therefore appear that, in the fact of having the young spotted, Cervulus muntjac and Cervulus sclateri agree together and differ from Cervulus reevesi. I must, however, confess that, until an opportunity offers of examining a larger series of the young of all three species, this can hardly be considered satisfactorily established. The skin of a very young specimen of Cervulus sclateri sent home by Mr. Swinhoe, the skull of which shows only the first true molar in place, being spotless, leads me to believe that these markings in the Muntjacs are lost at a very early age; it is therefore not impossible that the spotless stuffed specimen of Cervulus reevesi in the British Museum may represent that species at an age when the spots are lost. Correlated, apparently, with the long persistence of this form, I find in the reduction of the number of parts remaining permanently separate in the tarsal joint a more advanced stage of specialization than that exhibited by any Artiodactyle, with the exception of two probably equally ancient forms-namely, the simple horned Cervus pudu of Chili, and Hyomoschus aquaticus. In the typical tarsus of the Pecora, specialization has proceeded two steps in advance of that shown in the Suinse ; the navicular and cuboid have become united into one bone, as have also the second and third cuneiforms t the first cuneiform being represented by a small separate bone. Thus the typical adult tarsus of the Pecora (fig, 1 c) presents five separate * SeeP.Z.S. 1872, p. 813. t Professor Flower informs me that Dr. Kowalevsky has shown him convincing proof that the large bone between the cuboid and internal cuneiform in the Pecora represents the second and third cuneiform united |