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IN Vol. viii. p. 253 of your valuable journal, I find it noticed that the Chilian Exploring Expedition has taken a specimen of the Huemul, an animal which had altogether been lost sight of, and first described by Molina under the name of Equus bisulcus. This notice is not correct, as the animal has been described already in 1846 by Messrs. Gray and Gervais, in the Annales der scient. natur. iii. Ser. Tom. v. page 91, under the name of Cervus chilensis, and compared with C. antisiensis of D'Orbigny, as the species most nearly allied to the Huemul or Guemul or Guamel, different names for the same animal in different parts of the country. This first description was repeated the following year in the â Historia fisica y Politica de Chile,â Zoology, vol. i. page 159, and accompanied by the figure of the animal (pl. 10, and its skull pl. 11), from the only known specimen of a young male of half-grown size, brought to Paris by Mr. Gay. On the same specimen Mr. Pucheran has founded his description in his valuable monograph of the genus Cervus, published in the Archives du Museum, vol. vi. page 965 (1862), and from these two descriptions Mr. A. Warner has given a combined extract in his â Saugethiere,â &c. Tom. v. (supplement), page 382, under the same name of Cervus chilensis. Meanwhile Dr. J. E. Gray had described a species of deer, received by the Earl of Derby from Chili as Cervus leucotis(Annals of Nat. Hist. ii., Jer. Tom. v. page 324, 1840, and Proceed. Zool. Soc., 1849, page 64, pl. 12), which name he soon changed to Furcifer Huamel (Annals chr. iv. 427), and at last to Xenelaphus huamel, adding to his first description new notices, with the figures of the horns of the male (Proceed. Zool. Soc., 1869, page 496), and the skull of the female, and stating that his Cervus leucotis is identical with the Cervus chilensis of Gay. This exposition proves that the Huemul or Guemul is already a very well known animal, and has by no means been overlooked by naturalists. |
