448 CERVUS. 
at the Royal College of Surgeons in London, from which 
I have composed the figure engraved in cut 182, and 
which I believe to convey an exact idea of the port and 
proportions of the noble extinct animal. 
The antlers of the Megaceros spring from the extremities 
of a strong transverse semicylindrical eminence, which 
crosses the top of the skull rather nearer the orbits than 
the occiput; the base of each antler is encircled by the 
rugged and perforated ridge or ring of bone cailed the 
‘burr,’ or ‘ pearl’ (p), immediately above which the beam 
sends forward the first branch, or brow-antler (47), which 
is sometimes simple—sometimes expanded and bifurcate at 
the extremity —rarely divided into three points. The 
beam or shaft (4), is usually subcylindrical, and so con- 
tinues, gradually enlarging for about one-fourth the length 
of the entire antler, where it expands into the broad and 
massive subtriangular plate of bone, called the ‘ palm,’ 
which sends off from six to nine, but commonly seven 
branches. The first (46 z), comes off from the fore-part, is 
directed forwards, and usually inclines inwards ; it answers 
to the ‘bezantler’ in the Red-deer. The next branch 
is sent off, like that in the Fallow-deer, from the back part 
of the palm a little above or beyond the bezantler; all 
the remaining branches, usually five in number, are con- 
tinued from the fore-part and the extremity of the palm. 
The graceful oblique twist commencing in the beam is 
continued in the palm, so as to turn its convex surface 
obliquely forwards and downwards, and its concave sur- 
face upwards, backwards, and with a slight inclination 
towards that of the opposite antler, when the head is car- 
ried in the horizontal position. The longest branches are 
usually the two which come off beyond the bezantler from 
the fore-part of the palm (s); those from the extremity 
