HORNLESS DEER A CHAPTER IV The Deerlet FIRST glance at the little creature known as the Chevrotain or "deerlet" (Tragulus meminna) would not establish a definite idea in the mind as to its exact position in the animal kingdom. It is not unsuggestive of one of the long legged rodents, such as the agouti; it has also a slight hint of a marsupial about it. The hornless head seems to forbid its association with the group to which its feet evidently and certainly ally it. The fact of the matter is that the hesitation caused by the undeerlike aspect of Tragulus is perfectly reasonable, inasmuch as the creature is not definitely a deer though nearer to those animals than to any other group. It will be observed that the feet are four-toed, though the two middle toes have the preponderance and are symmetrical in themselves as are those of the deer. The toes, indeed, are perfect pig's trotters. We understand by a pig a beast of obese not to say ponderous build; while the slenderness and agility of a deer is proverbial. In the person of Tragulus we have a mingling of the two groups, and there is little doubt that in this mammal we have an archaic form of ruminant preserved for us. Its stomach is simpler than that of a true ruminant, and it is clear that this animal exactly fills up the position to be occupied by an animal which divides the hoof and does not chew the cud. Its small size is in accord with such a placing at the base of the Artio FAINT VERSUS FEINT dactyle series, for we know from much evidence that when a group appears it comes into existence in a modest and shrinking way, to wax fat later in its history. Smallness of size is a great advantage in the battle of life, especially when there is not much in the way of defence. This animal being hornless must trust to size and swiftness for escape. It is said, however, to add to these two qualities a third, that of cunning. These little deer behave in the face of danger like a good many animals belonging to quite different groups of the animal world. Beetles, opossums and raccoons, when hard pressed, and when avenues of escape seem to be cut off, feign death, and then, when the danger has passed by, get up and run away. It is, however, a question whether this shamming is really a trick, or whether it is a genuine faint or cataleptic trance produced by the near proximity of the terrible. The mind of the beetle would seem to be too embryonic to have contracted an advantageous trick with a beneficial result. But on the other hand it might be urged that the nerves of the beetle were of iron from their very imperfection, so that a possible explanation is hemmed round on all sides with difficulty. A careful inspection of the cunning " Kanchil,” as the Malays call the animal, will show that it has what few ruminants have, quite formidable tusks in the upper jaw. These tusks have led to the quite erroneous confusion of Tragulus with Moschus, the musk deer, a totally different animal, a definite deer belonging to the family Cervidæ, though usually dignified with a sub-family to itself. In the Kanchil or Meminna, to use two of its native names, these tusks play, it is asserted, a somewhat novel part for tusks to play. These teeth, which correspond of course to the tearing canines of the Carnivora, are alleged, with what truth we cannot say, to allow the kanchil to suspend itself from the branch of SIR STAMFORD RAFFLE'S STORIES a tree when hotly pursued by an enemy. The actual founder of the Zoological Society, whose bust adorns the Lion house, was told, and has told us, that a kanchil will neatly leap into a tree when fugitive and remain there in a state of suspense by its long canines. All we can say is, there are the teeth and here is the story. The tusks, it should be added, are an attribute of the male. The only living ally of the Tragulus is the African Hyomoschus, a shorter limbed but small deerlet, which is also of a brown colour with spots and stripes. One species of kanchil, Tragulus stanleyanus, recalls the memory of one of the early Presidents of the Zoological Society, the Earl of Derby, whose menagerie at Knowsley was sold in the early fifties, and the inhabitants largely drafted off to our Zoo. THE REINDEER The reindeer, Rangifer tarandus, is unique among the deer tribe by reason of the fact that both sexes bear horns. In other deer, as is well known, the stags alone are horned, the does being hornless. The reindeer, like the elk or moose, is circumpolar; and also like that animal, the American have been distinguished from the Northern European and Asiatic forms. More than this indeed; according to the most recent estimate of likenesses and unlikenesses nine distinct species of reindeer are allowed to the American continent and adjacent regions including Greenland. With the splitting of species we have nothing to do here save recording that it is mainly American in its inception, but has been eagerly followed in this country by some whose knowledge of animal life is limited to an acquaintance with the dead skin and the dried skull. In Europe the reindeer is not merely "game"; it is used by the inhabitants of Scandinavia. and has been from times of antiquity, as a beast of |