or Fossil Elk of Ireland. 311 



4. The Cervus Euryceros was an animal attached to a 

 marshy state of the country. 



This is evident by the more frequent occurrence of his re- 

 mains among the extensive bogs of Ireland than in any other 

 portion of the British dominions ; where, according to Mr 

 Hart, his bones are so abundant, that in the county of Antrim, 

 a pile of them was used for making a bonfire in celebration 

 of the Battle of Waterloo. Further proofs of the Cervus eury^ 

 ceros being an animal that frequented marshes are supplied in 

 the fact, that his remains are generally found in, or near, re- 

 cent and extinct fresh water lakes and pools, associated with 

 such plants as the birch, the willow, the alder, ferns, reeds, 

 &c. It also appears that he gave a preference to such waters 

 as were favourable to the accumulation of shell-marl ; this pre- 

 dilection, as I have shown in a previous memoir, being com- 

 mon to many other Cervi of the present day. Hence the very 

 frequent inhumation of his remains in deposits of this nature, 

 the circumstances of which I have described at large in a for- 

 mer number of this Journal, and which I need not now repeat. 



The food of the animal probably resembled that of the 

 moose ; consisting of the leaves of the willow, the alder, and 

 other aquatic plants, the small branches of which his horns 

 would assist in breaking. But while he frequented the low 

 woods of marshy grounds, there can be no doubt that he 

 avoided tall and dense forests, the progress through which 

 would be impeded by his vast horns. 



5. The chief use of the immense horns of the Cervus Eury^ 

 ceros was prohahly for his defence. 



The natural enemies of this animal were, no doubt, the 

 European hyena and tiger, tbe bear, the woTf, and other 

 carnivorous animals, many of which are extinct, who were his 

 contemporaries. Mr Hart on this subject has properly ob- 

 served, that, if we consider the powerful muscles for moving 

 the head, whose attachment occupied the extensive surfaces of 

 the cervical vertebrae, with the length of the lever afforded 

 by the horns themselves, we can easily conceive how he 

 could wield them with a force and velocity which would deal 

 destruction to any enemy, having the hardihood to venture 



