200 PROCEEDINGS OF TIIE ACADEMY OF [1885. 



skull ; (G) Cervalces almost certainly bad a rhinarium and upper 

 lip more like that of Cervus than of Alces. 



Cervalces differs from both genera: (1) In the intermediate 

 condition of the anterior nares ; (2) the peculiar antlers ; (3) the 

 distinct prefrontals ; (4) the remarkable concentration of the 

 tarsals. 



It thus seems very probable that Alces is descended from a 

 type with limbs, skull and antlers of the ordinary type and with 

 tetradactyle fore-feet, but has modified these in various ways. 

 The length of limb seems to be connected with the habitat of the 

 animal in snowj' regions, and we are told that the moose can make 

 his way with great swiftness through snow-drifts that will engulf 

 ordinary cattle. The unusual size of the lateral digits seems to 

 have reference to the animal's habit of living in swampy lands 

 during the summer, and so needing a broad surface to prevent 

 sinking in the mud. The shortening of the neck is difficult to 

 account for, but the proboscis-like upper lip seems to be clearly 

 connected with the habit of browsing upon ti'ees. Shortening of 

 the neck is very generally associated .with the development of a 

 prehensile lip ; e. g., the combined length of head and neck in the 

 rhinoceros is relatively greater than in the tapir. 



Cervalces seems to have been a contemporary of the moose 

 which also occurs in quaternary deposits, though in all probability 

 the former is the older of the two. Its extinction may be referred 

 to the general causes which destroyed so many of the large qua- 

 ternary mammals, though the competition of the more perfectly 

 adapted moose may have had something to do. with it. 



Whatever taxonomic value be allowed to the peculiarities of 

 this strange fossil, the fact remains that in it we can catch some 

 glimpse of the successive steps by which the remarkable genus 

 Alces has originated. 



