The great and small game of India, Burma, & Tibet . are probably also to a considerableextent nocturnal animals. The same is undoubtedly the case with theIndian sambar, which is likewise essentially a forest-dwelling animal,and the ears accordingly attain a relatively large size. On the otherhand, in the chital, which is to a great extent a diurnal species frequentingmore open country than the sambar, the ears are relatively small andnarrow. The remarkable difference in coloration between the sambarand the chital may likewise in all probability be attributed to theirwidely different environmen
The great and small game of India, Burma, & Tibet . are probably also to a considerableextent nocturnal animals. The same is undoubtedly the case with theIndian sambar, which is likewise essentially a forest-dwelling animal,and the ears accordingly attain a relatively large size. On the otherhand, in the chital, which is to a great extent a diurnal species frequentingmore open country than the sambar, the ears are relatively small andnarrow. The remarkable difference in coloration between the sambarand the chital may likewise in all probability be attributed to theirwidely different environment, the sombre hues of the former beingcalculated to afford protection in the obscurity of the forest, while the 222 Great and Small Game of India, etc. bright tints of the latter are more in harmony with the brilHancy ofits inanimate surroundings. By sportsmen this deer is commonly called axis, a name applied byPliny (and adopted from him by Belon) to an Indian animal whichthere is every reason to believe is the present species, of which indeed it. Fig. 44.—Head of a Chital Stag. forms the scientific title. For ordinary purposes it seems, however, farpreferable to adopt the Hindustani name chital, of which Indian spotteddeer is a somewhat expanded translation. With the exception of a darker-coloured species from one of theislands of the Philippini group, the chital is the only one of the rusinedeer which is spotted with white at all seasons of the year. Indeed it is, The Chital 223 with the above-named exception, the only deer that is as fully spotted inwinter as in summer, fallow deer losing all their spots in the formerseason, when they also tend to more or less completely disappear in theJapanese deer and its larger relatives. In size the chital may be described as medium, its height at thewithers usually ranging between 36 and 38 inches. It has a rather longand pointed head, elongated limbs, and a generally light and gracefullybuilt frame. There seems no marked seasonal d
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