During the past half century Mr. Ukiti MAYA, a resident of the city of Takamatu, has been collecting mammalian fossils from the Inland Sea of Japan. Last year he contributed his entire private collection to the Faculty of Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo. Upon examining these fossils now preserved at Waseda University, we found two specimens of a peculiar cervid which in our opinion belong to the genus
Capreolus. The living species of
Capreolus consist of the following three, namely,
C. caprea GRAY,
C. bedfordi THOMAS, and
C. pygargus (PALLAS). Of these
C. bedfordi and
C. pygargus now live in Northern China, Manchuria, and Korea. The primitive Roe-deers,
Procapreolus latifrons SCHLOSSER and P.
rutmeyeri SCHLOSSER, were found amongst the
Hipparion Fauna of China. This report deals with the first occurrence of the genus
Capreolus in Japan Proper, living or extinct.
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