44.6 CERVUS. 
animals. The great extinct Irish Deer surpassed the 
largest Wapiti, or Elk, in size, and much exceeded them 
in the dimensions of the antlers. The pair first described 
and figured in the ‘ Philosophical Transactions,’ measured 
ten feet ten inches in a straight line from the extreme tip 
of the right to that of the left antler; the length of each 
antler from the burr to the extreme tip in a straight 
line was five feet two inches, and the breadth of the 
expanded part, or palm, was one foot, ten mches and a 
half. Dr. Molyneux, after giving the dimensions of 
the fossil head and its noble attire, says, “‘ Doubtless all the 
rest of the parts of the body answered these in due pro- 
portion ;” and he infers the amount of the superiority of 
bulk of the great Irish Deer over the ‘fairest buck’ ac- 
cordingly. 
Recent discoveries of the entire skeleton of the Mega- 
ceros have, however, shown that the proportions of the 
trunk and limbs to the vast antlers were not the same with 
which we are familiar in the existing Deer best provided 
with these weapons, but that the antlers were both abso- 
lutely and relatively larger in the great extinct species: 
this, in fact, constitutes one of its best characteristics, and 
involves other differences in the form and proportions of 
its osseous framework. One of the modifications in the 
skeleton of the Megaceros, which relates to the vast weight 
of the head and neck, is the stronger proportions of its 
limbs ; and another and more striking character is the great 
size of the vertebre of the neck, which form the column 
immediately supporting the head and its massive append- 
ages. The extent of these modifications may be appreciated 
by the followimg dimensions of the skeleton of the Mega- 
ceros, and of that of the great American Moose (Alces 
palmata, var. Americana). 
