2 ARKIV FÖR ZOOLOGI. BAND 3. N:0 9. 



in Sweden is impossible to state now, but it is of interest to 

 report that in the collections of the Geological Survey in 

 Stockholm there is a subfossil antler of red deer from the 

 parish of Skedvi in Dalecarha. 



In Norway the red deer is to be found at several places (9 

 different districts) along the west coast from 59° 20' (Stavanger- 

 fjord) to 65° N. lat. (Namdalen) according to Collett^. The 

 greatest number lives on the island Hitteren and some neighbour- 

 ing islands. In the 16th century the distribution of the red 

 deer in Norway extended much further south to Lister and 

 Mandals amt, but they became exterminated there about 

 1570. In the middle of the 17th century the deer were rather 

 scarce in Norway. It is probable that the deer took their 

 refuge to the islands along the coast to evade the persecu- 

 tion of the wolves. In låter years when the wolves have 

 been exterminated or nearly so, in southern Norway there 

 seems to be a tendency among the red deer to return and 

 establish themselves on the mainland. In the last years some 

 few straying individuals have shown themselves south of 

 their real area of distribution viz. in the valleys above Chri- 

 stiansand -. 



From these short statements about the rough outlines of 

 the geographical distribution of the red deer in Sweden and 

 Norway it is apparent that, as far as is known, the two 

 areas of distribution have not met in historical time even 

 when they were largest. It is thus evident that the sw^edish 

 and norwegian deer have not mixed, at least for many cen- 

 turies. The question whether this isolation is original or not 

 wil] be discussed låter on. The knowledge about the isola- 

 tion together wdth the knowledge about several differences 

 in the fauna and flora of western Norway from those of 

 the other parts of the Scandinavian peninsula suggested to 

 me the probability of an existing difference between the sw^e- 

 dish red deer and that of Norway. I tried therefore to 

 obtain material of the latter for comparison and as soon as 

 I had succeeded in this I saw at once that the difference 

 was very pronounced and even greater than I had expected. 

 The chief differences will be set forth for the first time in 



^ Nyt Magazin for Naturvidenskaberne. 27 Bd. p. 241. Christiania 

 1883. 



^ For fuUer information about this see Collett: Nyt. Mag. f. Natur- 

 vid. Christiania 1898. 



