The mystery of the black barking deer, one of the least known of animals, has at last been solved by the Vernay-Cutting Zoological Expedition.
Mr. Arthur S. Vernay and Mr. C. Suydam Cutting, Trustees of the American Museum of Natural History and leaders of the expedition, set out {rom Rangoon towards the end of last year. With them went Mr. Kingdon Ward, well-known botanist and collector of Asiatic plants, Dr. Harold E. Anthony, Curator of the Department of Mammals of the Museum, and Mr. J. K. Stanford, late Deputy Commissioner of Myitkyina, Burma, anda well-known ornithologist.
After a 700-mile trek into the Burmese hinterland, the expedition secured two specimens. male and female, of black barking deer and a number of skins and skeletons. As far as is known there is not a single specimen in any museum.
The existence of this deer was discovered 15 years ago. The animal has been so called because to all appearances it is black, although actually it is a deep steel-grey. The expedition also secured 1,200 specimens of small animals, 1,500 specimens of birds, 2.000 specimens of plants of 500 different species. Tt ha: an example of the Chinese coffin tree. over which there has been considerable discussion.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.