3o6 BRITISH MAMMALS 



it made its way via Behring Straits (then dry land) into Siberia, 

 and so reached Western Europe. Dr. Scharff considers that a 

 second invasion of Europe by the reindeer took place when that 

 small form known as the Barren Ground race {Rangifer tarandus 

 arcticus\ with long slender antlers possessing but few points, 

 journeyed to Northern Scotland and Ireland by way of the 

 land bridge, or by the ice then joining Scotland with Iceland and 

 Greenland. 



The reindeer (no doubt as an article of food) made a 

 profound impression on primitive man in Northern Europe, 

 and is often portrayed by scratches on bone or ivory, or on 

 the sides of caverns. A capital picture of a reindeer from the 

 cave of Combarelles, in Dordogne, indicates a type of antler 

 much like that of the Barren Ground variety. The Woodland 

 form of reindeer does not seem to have arrived in Britain till 

 the close of the Glacial phase. It soon swarmed over the country, 

 leaving almost more remains than have been left by any other 

 extinct beast. It specially abounded in the valley of the Thames, 

 in Wiltshire, Kent, and Somerset. There is reason to suppose 

 that it may even have lingered in parts of Britain when the 

 Romans arrived here. Its fossil remains are found all over 

 Scotland. As already mentioned, remains of the reindeer are 

 also abundant in Ireland ; but, in common with some found in 

 Western Scotland and Northern France, they appear to indicate a 

 type similar to that now dwelling in Arctic America. In England 

 it was apparently fiercely attacked by the cave lion and the 

 spotted hyasna ; no doubt also by the great cave bear and by the 

 wolf. 



Genus : CER VUS. THE TYPICAL DEER 



This large genus, together with allied genera of the same 

 group, belongs, as already mentioned, to the Plesiometacarpalian 

 division, in which the lost toes (second and fifth) are repre- 

 sented by the upper ends of their metacarpal^ bones close 



^ The metatarsal fragments on the hind limbs are rarely found. 



