This animal being only known by the vague names of the _hind_ of
_Sardinia_, and the _deer_ of the _Ganges_, we have preserved the name
given him by Belon, and which he borrowed from Pliny; because, the
character of Pliny's axis agrees with this animal, and the name has
never been applied to any other; and, therefore, we are not afraid of
falling into confusion or error, for a generic denomination, joined
to an epithet derived from the climate, is not a name, but a phrase,
by which we may confound one animal with others of his genus, as
this with the stag, although, perhaps, it is really distinct both in
species and climate. The axis (_fig. 144._) is one of the small number
of ruminating animals who has horns like the stag. He has the shape
and swiftness of the fallow-deer. But what distinguishes him from both
is, his having the horns of the former, and figure of the latter; his
body is marked with white spots,[H] elegantly disposed, and separated
one from another; and lastly, he is a native of warm countries;[I]
while the stag and fallow-deer have their coats generally of a uniform
colour, and are to be met with in greater numbers in cold and temperate
regions than in warm climates.
[H] The axis is about the size of the fallow-deer, the ground colour of
his body is a greyish yellow beautifully marked with white spots; his
belly is white, as is also the under part of his tail, while the upper
inclines to red.
[I] I never saw, at Senegal, any stag with horns like those in France.
_Voyage de le Maire._--There are stags in the peninsula of India, on
this side the Ganges, whose bodies are interspersed with white spots.
_Voyage de la Compagnie des Indes de Hollande._--There are stags at
Bengal spotted like tigers. _Voyage de Luillier._
The gentlemen of the Academy of Sciences have given the figure and
description of the interior parts of this animal, but say very little
of his exterior form, and nothing with respect to his history. They
have only called him the _Sardinian hind_, because, probably, they
received that name from the royal menagerie, where there is one
of them; but there is no proof of this animal's being a native of
Sardinia. No author has mentioned that he exists in that island, as
a wild animal; but on the contrary, we see by the passages we have
quoted, that he is found in the warmest countries of Asia. Thus the
denomination of _Sardinian hind_, has been falsely applied; that of the
_Ganges stag_ agrees best, if he really were of the same species as the
stag, since that part of India, which the Ganges waters, appears to be
his native country. He is also to be met with in Barbary, and, it is
probable, that the spotted fallow-deer of the Cape of Good Hope, is the
same animal.
We have already remarked, that no species approaches so near each
other, as that of the fallow-deer to the stag: nevertheless, the axis
appears to be an intermediate shade between the two. He resembles the
fallow-deer in the size of his body, length of his tail, and his coat,
which is the same during his whole life: the only essential difference
is in his horns, which nearly resemble those of the stag. The axis,
therefore, may be only a variety depending on the climate, and not a
different species from that of the fallow-deer; for, although he is
a native of the warmest countries of Asia, he exists and multiplies
easily in Europe. There are many herds of them in the royal menagerie;
and they produce together as freely as the fallow-deer. It has never,
however, been observed, that they mix either with the fallow-deer, or
with the stags, and this is the cause of our presuming, that they are
not a variety of one or the other, but a particular and intermediate
species. But as no direct and decisive experiments on this subject
have yet been made, and as no necessary means has been used to oblige
these animals to unite, we will not positively affirm that they are two
different species.
We have already seen, under the articles of stag and fallow-deer, how
many instances these animals give of varieties, especially in the
colour of their hair. The species of the fallow-deer and stag, without
being very numerous in individuals, is universally diffused; both are
met with in either continent, and both are subject to a great number of
varieties, which appear to form lasting kinds. The white stags, which
are a very ancient race, since the Greeks and Romans mention them, and
the small brown stags, which we have called _Corsican stags_, are not
the only varieties of this species. There is in Germany another race,
known in that country by the name of _Brandhertz_, and by our hunters
by that of the _Stag of Ardennes_. This stag is larger than a common
stag, and differs from other stags not only by its deeper colour,
being almost black, but also by long hair upon the shoulders and on
the throat. This kind of mane and beard give him some affinity, the
first to the horse, and the latter to the goat. The ancients have given
to this stag the compound names of _Hippelaphus_ and _Tragelaphus_.
As these denominations have occasioned critical discussions, in which
the most learned naturalists are not agreed, and as Gesner, Caius, and
others, have said, that the hippelaphus was the rein-deer, we shall
here give the reasons which have occasioned us to think differently,
and have led us to suppose that the hippelaphus of Aristotle is the
same animal as the tragelaphus of Pliny, and that both these names
equally denote the stag of Ardennes.
Aristotle gives to his hippelaphus a kind of mane upon the neck and
upon the upper part of the shoulders, a beard under the throat, horns
to the male resembling those of the roe-bucks, and no horns to the
female. He says, that the hippelaphus is of the size of a stag, and
is found among the Arachotas, a people of India, where wild oxen are
also to be met with, whose bodies are robust, their skins black, their
muzzles raised, and their horns bent more backwards than those of the
domestic oxen. It must be acknowledged, that Aristotle's characters
of the hippelaphus, agree nearly with those of the rein-deer and the
stag of Ardennes; they both have long hair upon the neck and shoulders,
and also on the throat, which forms a kind of beard on the gullet,
and not on the chin; but the hippelaphus, being only of the size of
the stag, differs in that from the rein-deer, who is much larger: and
what appears to me decisive on the question is, that the rein-deer
being an animal belonging to cold countries, never existed among the
Arachotas. The country of the Arachotas is one of the provinces which
Alexander travelled over in his expedition into India; it is situated
beyond Mount Caucasus, between Persia and India. This hot climate
never produced any rein-deer, as they cannot exist even in temperate
countries, and are only to be met with in the northern regions of both
continents. Stags, on the contrary, are not particularly attached to
the north, but are to be found in great numbers in warm and temperate
climates. Thus we cannot doubt but the hippelaphus of Aristotle, which
is met with among the Arachotas, and in the same countries with the
buffalo, is the stag of Ardennes, and not the rein-deer.
If we now compare what Pliny says upon the tragelaphus with what
Aristotle says upon the hippelaphus, and both with Nature, we shall
find, that the tragelaphus is the same animal as the hippelaphus,
and therefore the same as our stag of Ardennes. Pliny says, that the
tragelaphus is of the stag species,[J] and only differs from him by the
beard and the hair on his shoulders. These characters are positive, and
can only be applied to the stag of Ardennes; for Pliny speaks elsewhere
of the rein-deer under the name of _Alcé_. We think ourselves,
therefore, sufficiently warranted to pronounce, that the tragelaphus
of Pliny, and the hippelapus of Aristotle, both denote the animal we
call the _Stag of Ardennes_; and that the axis of Pliny is the animal
commonly called the _Ganges Stag_. Though names have no influence on
Nature, yet an explication of them is doing service to those who study
her productions.
[J] Eadem est specie (cervi videlicet) barbâ tantum; et armorum villo
distans quem _tragelaphon_ vocant non alibi quam juxta Phasius amnem
nascens. _Pliny._ Hist. Lib. viii. c. 33.