212 COMMON TIRTTISTT ANIMALS 



their antlers every year. Fossil forms show a very 

 interesting evolutionary development of the antler 

 from very simple forms to the complicated weapon 

 carried by the great Irish elk, or rather fallow deer 

 [Cerviis megaceros). 



Deer are found all over the world except in 

 Africa and Australia. In Africa they are replaced by 

 the antelopes, which have bovine or permanent horns. 

 Antelopes possess a gall-bladder, an organ which is 

 entirely wanting in the digestive apparatus of the 

 true deer, as it is in the elephant. This is an 

 interesting fact, which makes one wonder as to the 

 nature and function of this organ. The different 

 kinds of deer vary considerably in size, from the 

 Canadian moose, which is 7 feet at the shoulder, to 

 the Chilian pudu, which measures only 18i inches. 

 They are covered with hair, which they shed twice 

 a year, rapidly in springtime and slowly in autumn. 

 There are glands between the hoofs and some have 

 glands on the hind legs. The axis deer are spotted 

 at all ages and seasons ; some are spotted only in 

 their summer coats and when young. The red deer, 

 fallow deer and roe deer are now the only British 

 species, though the fallow deer is said to have died 

 out and been re-introduced by the Romans. In 

 Pleistocene times the reindeer and elk or moose were 

 also natives. 



The Bed Deer (Cervns elafhns). 



The red deer, which is the glory of the Scottish 

 and Devonshire deer forests, where it is truly wild, 

 has, as its name implies^ a glossy reddish-brown 



