CLASSIFICATION. The classification of (leer is now based largely upon the structure of the feet and the antlers. There are two mail' groups of deer, the Plesiometacarpalia and the Tricnictocur polio. The former are all Old 'World deer, except the wapiti (q.v.), and have the proximal por tions of the lateral metacarpals present. and the vonier never divides the posterior osseous mires into two distinct passages. This group comprises the genera Cervulns. the mnntjaes (q.v.) : Ela phodus, with a single small Chinese specie:. and This last genus includes many species. and is subdivided, chiefly aceording to the form of the antlers, into seven groups, as follows: (1) Rusine, in which the antlers have no tine (known as the hex) just above the lowest or brow tine, the beam is upright and simply forked at the tip. the brow tine rises close to the base, and the angle formed with the beam is acute; (2) thicervine. beam somewhat flattened. and bifurcates into two brandies. which again divide, and the brow tine is given off at an obtuse angle and curves upward; (3) Elaphurine. beam straight, erect, with a loug. straight back tine; (4) Axinc, antlers rusine. hut body of adult marked with rows of white spots; (5) Psendax ine, similar to axine, but the antlers have a forked beam, of which the posterior tine is the smaller; (6) Elaphine, a bez tine is present and the rounded beam splits up into a number of small tines often arranged in a cup-like manner; (7) Damine, the antlers are palmated near the tip. See ANTLER, where illustrations of various forms are given.
(If these seven groups, the Elaphine is the most important. the red deer and wapiti, but the well-known sambur ( Cerras ristotclis) of ludin is rusine, the swamp deer ((Writs Duran celli) of the same country is rucervine, the axis is axine, the Japanese deer (Perras sill) is pseudaxine, while the fallow deer (Cerrus (lama) is damine.
The Telemetaearpalia include all the American deer except the wapiti, and several old World species also. The distal extremities of the lateral metacarpals are present and the vomer usually divides the posterior mires into two distinct ori fices. The genus liangifer contains the reindeer and caribou; -\ices, the elk, or moose; and Capreolus includes the roe-deer of Europe and Asia. The Chinese water-deer is a remarkable little species withoot antlers, and is the sole representative of the genus Hydropotes. The genus Cariacus in cludes, besides the three species already men tioned, a number of others hound in the western United States, and in Central and South Amer ica. They may he grouped in four sections known as the Cariacine. Blastocerine, Vurciferine. and ('oassine. The North American deer all belong in the first section, while the last one includes the small South American deer known as brock ets. The genus Pudua inchules only a single diminutive species. the pudu, which is less than eighteen inches high, and lives in the Andes of Chile.