LÖNNBERG, ON THE GEOGR. RACES OF RED DEER TN SCANDIN. 17 



case and then Dr. Stejneger's views appear to lo.se the last 

 support. 



In the same way as Stej neger assumes two different 

 invasions of red deer into Europé a similar opinion has been 

 expressed by Scharff in his book »The History of the Eu- 

 ropean Fauna». He thinks that »the small raee now found 

 in Corsica, Sardinia, northwest Africa, and western Europé» 

 came first and then the larger race of the european conti- 

 nent should ha ve »arrived very much låter from Siberia». 

 Such a theory is, however, completely unnecessary and it is 

 very easy to explain the smallness and divergence of the 

 enumerated races as secondary results of isolation under less 

 favourable conditions. That large species of mammals inha- 

 biting Islands often become smaller than the nearest allied 

 Continental races is proved by so many examples that if 

 the insular red deer did not show analogous characteristics 

 they should rather be exceptions than the contrary. The 

 smallness of the deer in the present day living in Corsica, 

 Sardinia, Ireland^ and Scotland may thus be explained. The 

 norlh african red deer is very different from the typical red 

 deer of Europé and seems to deserve specific rank. It is much 

 paler and always, and in all ages, spotted, winter as well as 

 summer, with light spöts as I have had the opportunity to 

 observe on tunesian specimens in the Zoological Garden of 

 Berlin. Its loss of the bez-tine to the antiers is possibly 

 »due to degeneracy owing to the unsuitability of a warmer 

 chmate to full development» as has been suggested by Ly- 

 DEKKER-. Some other characteristics may be explained in a 

 similar way. The paleness of its pelage may be an adapta- 

 tion to the natural conditions of the tree- less country where 

 it is said to live, but the retention of the light spöts is an 

 atavistic characteristic. The north african deer is on the 

 whole so widely separated from the european red deer that 

 it needs not be further discussed. 



The smallness of the norwegian deer does not offer any 

 more difficulties for explanation than that of true insular 

 races, for in reality it lives under analogons conditions. The 

 greatest number of the norwegian deer live, as is stated above, 



^ The red deer of Ireland has not always been small to jiidge from 

 subfossil antiers in British Museum of Natural history. 

 - The deer of all lands. London 1898. 



Arkir för Zoolo<j>. li<J 3. X:o 9. i 



