MUSK PODS 



301 



century it was so common that the traveller Tavernier purchased 

 7673 musk "pods" in one journey, or, according to Buffon, 

 1663. The tusks, which recall those of Hydropotes, to which 

 Moschus is not nearly allied, and of Tragulus, with which 

 it has of course still less connexion, are said to be used for the 

 digging up of roots. Its feet, in relation to its mountain-ranging 

 habits, are very mobile. 



Extinct Species of Deer. It has been already mentioned 

 that the most primitive kinds of Deer had no horns at all, 

 resembling in this the modern Moschus and Hydropotes, and that 

 with lapse of time went hand in hand an increasing complexity 

 of antler ; the facts of palaeontology harmonising in the most 

 striking manner with the facts of individual development from 

 year to year. The oldest forms seem to be more nearly akin to the 

 living Muntjacs, and their remains occur in the lowest Miocene 

 beds of both Europe and America. At present the group is 

 confined to the warmer parts of Asia and some of the islands 

 belonging to that continent. 



One of the oldest types is Amphitragulus. This genus, 

 which consists of several species, inhabited Europe, and differed 

 from living Muntjacs in being totally hornless in both sexes ; 

 the skull had no lachrymal fossa or deficient lateral ossification. 



Nearly allied is Dremotherium of similar age and range. 



The Middle Miocene has furnished the remains of the genus 

 Dicroceras. This is the earliest Deer in which horns have been 

 found. The horns are, as the name of the genus implies, bifid, 

 and have, like those of the living Muntjac, a very long pedicel. 

 This is also a European genus like the last. From this period 

 we come across true Deer, which commence in the Upper Miocene 

 and have branched horns. Moreover they belong, at least for 

 the most part, to the existing genera. One of the most remark- 

 able forms is Cervus sedgwicki (sometimes placed in a separate 

 genus, Polycladus) from the Forest Bed of Norfolk and from the 

 Upper Pliocene of the Val d'Arno. This creature was remark- 

 able for its multitudinously-branched antlers. These end in no 

 less than twelve points. No Deer exists or has existed in which 

 the horns are so completely branched.- They are like those of a 

 Eed Deer exaggerated. 



Fam. 7. Giraffidae. Undoubtedly the type of a distinct 

 family, Giraffidae, is the genus Gira/a. It is characterised by 



