XI MUSK PODS 301 
century it was so common that the traveller Tavernier purchased 
7673 musk “pods” in one journey, or, according to Buffon, 
1663. The tusks, which recall those of Hydropotes, to which 
Moschus is not nearly allied, and of Zragulus, with which 
it has of course still less connexion, are said to be used for the 
digging up of roots. Its feet, in relation to its mountain-ranging 
habits, are very mobile. 
Extinct Species of Deer.—It has been already mentioned 
that the most primitive kinds of Deer had no horns at all, 
resembling in this the modern Moschus and Hydropotes, and that 
with lapse of time went hand in hand an increasing complexity 
of antler; the facts of palaeontology harmonising in the most 
striking manner with the facts of individual development from 
year to year. The oldest forms seem to be more nearly akin to the 
living Muntjacs, and their remains occur in the lowest Miocene 
beds of both Europe and America. At present the group is 
confined to the warmer parts of Asia and some of the islands 
belonging to that continent. 
One of the oldest types is Amphitragulus. This genus, 
which consists of several species, inhabited Europe, and differed 
from living Muntjacs in being totally hornless in both sexes ; 
the skull had no lachrymal fossa or deficient lateral ossification. 
Nearly allied is Dremotherium of similar age and range. 
The Middle Miocene has furnished the remains of the genus 
Dicroceras. This is the earliest Deer in which horns have been 
found. The horns are, as the name of the genus implies, bifid, 
and have, like those of the living Muntjac, a very long pedicel. 
This is also a European genus like the last. From this period 
we come across true Deer, which commence in the Upper Miocene 
and have branched horns. Moreover they belong, at least for 
the most part, to the existing genera. One of the most remark- 
able forms is Cervus sedgwicki (sometimes placed in a separate 
genus, Polycladus) from the Forest Bed of Norfolk and from the 
Upper Pliocene of the Val d’Arno. This creature was remark- 
able for its multitudinously-branched antlers. These end in no 
less than twelve points. No Deer exists or has existed in which 
the horns are so completely branched. They are like those of a 
Red Deer exaggerated. 
Fam. 7. Giraffidae.— Undoubtedly the type of a distinct 
family, Giraffidae, is the genus Giraffa. It is characterised by 
