160 MAMMALS. 



extirpated. So glutted was the neiglibourmg town of Ta^^stock with venison at the time, that 

 only the haunches were saved, and the rest given to the dogs.* 



In Ireland, the Red Deer stiU roams through its native woods of Kerr}', and was known 

 in parts of Galway, especially among the Twelve Pins, and in Erris in the county of Mayo, 

 within the memory of the last generation. We gather that in ancient times it must have been 

 very abundant, not only from the traditions of the countrj' but from the curious corroborative 

 fact mentioned by Mr. Wilde in his paper above referred to, that immense quantities of the tips 

 of stags' horns have been discovered both in the great Cranmoge of Dunshaughlin, and also in 

 Dublin itself in sinking a sewer in the High Street. These bits of bone, which are from 

 three to live inches in length, were sawn off fi'om the remainder of the horn, which was in 

 all probability manufactured into sword and knife handles, the antlers of the Stag having 

 been largely used in the manufacture of these objects, and for spears and other purposes.! 



Roe Deer. (Cervus Capreolus.) The range of the Roe extends over all Europe with the 

 exception of the greater part of Russia. It is scarcer in the northern countries, and is fast dis- 

 appearing in Scandinavia and Britain. It is more plentiful in the south, as iu Italy, Greece, 

 &c. It is said, I know not with what justice, to be now extinct in England. It certainlj^ is 

 not so in Scotland. Until within the last hundi-ed years, it used to be not unfrequently met 

 with on the wastes near Hexham in Northumberland, but at last dwindled down to a single 

 animal, which is said to have been killed by Mr. Whitfield, of Whitfield, in Northumberland, 

 about ninety years a go. 4: 



There are six North American Deer besides the Moose and the Reindeer, resi^ectively, pe- 

 culiar to different rHstricts of that Continent. There is the Canadian for the north, the Virginian for 

 the east (east of the Missouri and south of Maine to the Gulf of Mexico). The Missouri or old 

 tertiary Nebraska sea again acts as a barrier here. The Virginian Deer does not cross it, but 

 it is replaced by something else which may prove to be only one species for the whole west, 

 or perhaps three species ; one or two for the district between the Missouri and the western 

 side of the Rocky Mountains ; and the other for the coast or Columbian district west s>f the 

 Cascade Mountains. 



* " Eiiglisli Forests aiul Forest Trees," 1853, p. 116. 



t Wilde, op. cit. in " Transactions Royal Irish Acad.," May, 1859. 



t " English Forests and Forest Trees," p. 286. 



