This kind of deer has no brow antler.
They are very fast, and excel especially in going up hill, in
which ground they frequently escape from the best grey-hounds.
There is no doubt that the red-deer venison is the best in
Ceylon, but the animal itself is not generally sought after for
sport. He gives a most uninteresting run; never going straight
away like a deer, but doubling about over fifty acres of ground
like a hare, until he is at last run into and killed. They exist
in extraordinary numbers throughout every portion of Ceylon, but
are never seen in herds.
Next to the red deer is the still more tiny species, the "mouse
deer." This animal seldom exceeds twelve inches in height, and
has the same characteristic as the red deer in the heavy
proportion of body to its small length of limb. The skin is a
mottled ash-gray, covered with dark spots. The upper jaw is
furnished with sharp tusks similar to the red deer, but the head
is free from horns.
The skull is perfectly unlike the head of a deer, and is closely
allied to the rat, which it would exactly resemble, were it not
for the difference in the teeth. The mouse deer lives
principally upon berries and fruits; but I have seldom found much
herbage upon examination of the paunch. Some people consider the
flesh very good, but my ideas perhaps give it a "ratty" flavor
that makes it unpalatable.
These little deer make for some well-known retreat the moment
that they are disturbed by dogs, and they are usually found after
a short run safely ensconced in a hollow tree.
It is a very singular thing that none of the deer tribe in Ceylon
have more than six points on their horns, viz., three upon each.
These are, the brow-antler point, and the two points which form
the extremity of each horn. I have seen them occasionally with
more, but these were deformities in the antlers.
A stranger is always disappointed in a Ceylon elk's antlers; and
very naturally, for they are quite out of proportion to the great
size of the animal. A very large Scotch red deer in not more
than two-thirds the size of a moderately fine elk, and yet he
carries a head of horns that are infinitely larger.
In fact, so rare are fine antlers in Ceylon that I could not pick
out more than a dozen of really handsome elk horns out of the
great numbers that I have killed.
A handsome pair of antlers is a grand addition to the beauty of a
fine buck, and gives a majesty to his bearing which is greatly
missed when a fine animal breaks cover with only a puny pair of
horns.
