MEGACEROS HIBERNICUS. 459 
in shell-marl at Ratheannon, Fig. 187. 
observes that ‘of eight heads 
which we found, none were 
without antlers ; the variety 
in character, also, was such 
us to induce me to imagine, 
that possibly the females 
were not devoid of these ap- 
* 
pendages.” 
Cuvier was of the same 
opinion, and he thought that 
the Megaceros in this re- 
spect might resemble the 
Rein-deer. To this conclu- 
sion, also, Dr. Hart is much 
disposed to subscribe, from 
having observed that these 
parts presented differences 
in size and strength, which 
appear not to be dependant 
Skull of Female Megaceros, 4th nat, 
on difference of age ; and he sizes 
cites an example of the skull of the Megaceros, with teeth 
much worn down, in which the antlers were less expanded 
and one-sixth less than those belonging to an evidently 
younger individual, and which, therefore, he concluded 
might not unlikely be the male, and the older specimen 
the female. But in all Deer, the antlers, when the animal 
has passed its prime, begin to be shorn of those fair pro- 
portions that characterise the vigour of life; and the di- 
minished size of the antlers of the aged skull of the Mega- 
ceros in Trinity College, shows that their development in 
* © Description of the Skeleton of the Fossil Deer of Ireland, Cervus megaceros,’ 
by John Hart, &c, 8vo. 1830, p. 15, 
