Water-deer frequent the neighbourhood of the large Chinese rivers where they crouch amid the reeds and grass in such a manner as to be invisible, even when not completely concealed by the covert.
In a few existing species, such as the musk-deer and the water-deer, these appendages are absent, and they are likewise lacking in a large number of extinct members of the group, in fact in all the earlier ones.
For the small eastern deer, respectively known as muntjacs (Cervulus) and tufted muntjacs or tufted deer (Elaphodus), see Muntjac; while under Water-Deer will be found a notice of the Chinese representative of the genus Hydrela phus (or Hydropoles).
Some of the more northern American deer, such as the wapiti, reindeer and elk (moose), are closely allied to Old World species; but there is also a group of exclusively American deer (Mazama) - the only one found in Central and South America - the members of which are unlike any living Old World deer; and these must be regarded as having reached the western hemisphere at an earlier date than the wapiti, reindeer and elk (see Deer, Elk, Fallow-Deer, Muntjac, Musk-Deer, Pre David'S Deer, Reindeer, Roebuck, Water-Deer, &c.).
