]8 ARKIV FÖR ZOOLOGI. BAND 3. N:0 9. 



on the coast Islands, and those t hat dwell on the mainland 

 have almost as restricted a habitat as if they lived on is- 

 lands. It is namely only a narrow strip along the coast 

 which is suitable for them, on one side is the sea and on 

 the other rise the naked and sterile mountains. 



From this may be concluded that the present author 

 holds the opinion that the small races of red deer of dif fe- 

 rent localities in Europé may easily be explained as products 

 of the natural conditions of the places wbere they live. It 

 is thus no need to assume a primary invasions into Europé 

 of small red deer followed in a låter period by another of 

 large deer. But if there had been such a primary invasion 

 of small deer there ought to have been some remains of them 

 to be found in peat-moor sand so on, in the countries through 

 which they gradually passed and where they must have lived 

 sometime, because it cannot be assumed that they just wan- 

 dered through to reach the western and southern coast lines 

 of Europé. As far as I know, such remains have not been 

 found. On the contrary remains of red deer found in peat- 

 moors indicate a large race. A couple of finds of subfossil 

 remains of deer in Norway reported by Collett^ appear to 

 be of special interest in this connection. A t a depth of 17-' 

 meter a very large antler of deer was found at a place in 

 Ringerrike in south eastern Norway. It measured not less 

 than 1 meter in length, had 11 tines, and weighed 4,3 kg. 

 It is evident that it had belonged to a very large deer and 

 Stejneger means that this has been a representative of »the 

 great central European race». I agree with him in that, but 

 I do not see any reason why this race should have been 

 obliged to stop for ever in that part of Norway and why it 

 should not have been able to extend further west along the 

 coast as the oak-and Ilex-flora has done. According to my 

 opinion the red deer went the same way as the flora did 

 and then when the climate become deteriorated and food 

 less plentiful they gradually degenerated to the present small 

 race. There is however, a proof that the deer in western 

 Norway and even far north — in fact further north than the 

 boundary line of the present distribution — in bygone days 

 attained a large size. According to Collett (1. c. p. 359) the 

 Zoological Museum of Christiania possesses an antler of deer 



' Nyt Mag. f. Naturvidensk. Christiania 1898. 



