132 Dr Hibbert on the Cervus Euryceros, or Irish Elk. 



animalium diversas continet, inter quas sunt cervi palmati 

 ducenti mixtis Britannis. 1 '' The passage thus cited is a re- 

 markable one, particularly in reference to the term mixtis 

 Britannis, the large extinct elks being most abundantly found 

 in the British islands. But in carefully examining the general 

 tenor of the sentence quoted from Capitolinus, without any 

 view to theory, we must acknowledge that the allusion is very 

 ambiguous. Aldrovandus is, at the same time, doubtful to 

 what animal certain ancient horns were to be referred, which 

 had previously engaged the attention of Bellonius, adding, 

 " suspicorque cornua ilia ingentis magnitudinis, quas in gra- 

 dibus et ascensu Arabrosiana? arcis conspiciuntur, non vulgaris 

 damae, ut Bellonius existimat, fuisse, sed vel alcis vel alterius." 

 But he concludes, with regard to the Cervus palmatus of 

 Capitolinus, that it referred to some large animal, the horns 

 of which equalled, or exceeded in length and thickness, those 

 of the stag, and in width those of the fallow-deer — a descrip- 

 tion that, he conceives, may answer to the Ivgixefwg of Op- 

 pian ; and hence he gives to the animal in one place the 

 name of Euryceros. Now, I would submit, that this appella- 

 tion be retained, as significant of the fossil Irish ellt, in con- 

 tradistinction to the still existing elk of Sweden and other 

 places. It may be at the same time doubtful, if by the wide- 

 horned stag of Oppian was really meant the Cervus palmatus 

 of Capitolinus, or even the gigantic fossil elk of the Bri- 

 tish Islands; — for although the Euryceros is carefully separated 

 from the iogao/, and although it is said to exceed the Bi£a\@- in 

 size, and to be still larger than the A^xoj, * yet unfortunately 

 for this description, it is still a question with naturalists, what 

 particular animals Oppian had subjected to this comparison ?*f- 

 It is certain, however, that under the term Euryceros, he 

 meant the most eminent of the tribe of EXa<po/ : 



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^onniANOT KTNHrETIKfiN, lib. ii. 291, et seq. 

 t Ossemens Fossiles, par M. Cuvier, tome iv. p. 30. 



