MOUNTAIN MAMMALS 69 



be a reminiscence of days when they had to unite 

 their forces against wolves. The Romans often get 

 the credit of introducing the Fallow Deer, but at the 

 most it could only be reintroduction, for the remains 

 of deer very like our Fallow Deer have been found in 

 deposits much older than the Roman Invasion. 



The shell-marl below the peat in Ireland, and 

 various cave-deposits and river-gravels in England 

 have yielded remains of the splendid Irish Deer 

 (Cervus giganteus), often badly called the Irish Elk. 

 This extinct species had the largest and most mas- 

 sive antlers in the whole Deer family, for the span 

 was sometimes eleven feet. The animal stood about 

 six feet high at the withers, and was widely dis- 

 tributed throughout Europe. It seems to have lasted 

 in Ireland until comparatively recent prehistoric 

 times. Its extinction was probably due in the main 

 to a commonplace cause man's persecution; but we 

 cannot but suspect that the momentum of evolution 

 had carried the growth of the antlers beyond the 

 bounds of safety. It is desirable to drop the name 

 Irish Elk, for the creature was not an Elk. More- 

 over, the true Elk (Alces ma Mis), still surviving in 

 North Europe, was a contemporary of the Giant Deer 

 in Ireland. So also was the Reindeer (Rangifer 

 tarandus), which used to occur throughout Great 

 Britain and Ireland. There are records, indeed, we 

 believe, which indicate that some specimens lingered 

 in the North of Scotland till about the twelfth cen- 

 tury. It will be understood, however, that Red Deer, 

 Fallow Deer, and Irish Deer may all be included as 

 first cousins in the genus Cervus, whereas Elk and 

 Reindeer are not related to them nor to one another. 



