228 THE DEER OF AMERICA. 



the first drift, after the more rapid current with its icebergs had 

 swept off most of the surface material down to the bed rock, — 

 the St. Peter's sand-stone, — and at the same time the oaks and 

 the conifers which formed his shelter. I am not aware that we 

 have satisfactory evidence that any other of our existing fauna 

 lived here, even at that time. So far as the proof goes, we may 

 pronounce our deer the oldest of our extant fauna. The late 

 Dr. J. W. Foster carefully examined the locality with me, and 

 he pronounced it the oldest of the valley drift w^hicli had depos- 

 ited these remains, and considered the find of the highest geo- 

 logical interest. 



The antlers of the Acapulco Deer, which is the smallest of all 

 our North American species, are widely separated from those of 

 either of the other species both in size and form. I have but 

 one pair of these in my collection from an adult, though I have 

 several from young bucks. The large ones were from an animal 

 that died of old age in the park of Governor Latham in Cal- 

 ifornia, to whom I am indebted for a female of the same species. 



It is unfortunate that I have not antlers from a considerable 

 number of full grown bucks of this species so that I could feel a 

 confident assurance that I am presenting tj^pical characteristics. 

 Now there is a bare possibility, that the antlers before me are 

 exceptional in their forms. However, in describing this single 

 pair we may provisionally assume that the peculiarities are char- 

 acteristic of the sj^ecies, admitting that there may be minor dif- 

 ferences in individuals, as we observe with all the others. They 

 are illustrated in Fig. 24, on p. 224. 



These antlers spring from pedicels of unusual height for their 

 size, which at their tops are two and one half inches apart. 

 The extreme length of these antlers is seven inches and three 

 lines and above the burr the circumference of each is two inches 

 and nine lines where they are nearly round, but they very soon 

 assume a triangular shape, and at two inches above the burrs 

 from the inner side of the beams, the basal snags arise. That 

 on the right antler is one inch in length and on the left it is nine 

 lines long. Above these snags, the antlers flatten out from the 

 triangular form into distinct palms, increasing in width and di- 

 minishing in thickness to their ends, which are notched, the right 

 deeply and the left slightly. At the broadest part, just below 

 the notch, the right antler is one inch and ten lines wide, and 

 the left is one inch and seven lines wide. The beam above the 



