144 MAMMALIA ORDER VI.UNGULATA. 



and tha closely-allied wapiti (C. canadensu) of North America. In all these 

 species, which include the largest members of the genus, the antlers do riot 

 form a distinct cup at the summit. The Barbary variety of the red-deer does 

 not develop the bez-tine, 



The common fallow-deer (C. dama), whose native home appears to be the 

 Mediterranean countries, and the Persian fallow-deer (C. mesopotamicits), are 

 the sole existing members of the last, or Damine, group of the genus, charac- 

 terised by the palmation of the antlers, and by the fur being generally 

 spotted, although there is a uniformly brown variety of the common species. 

 These deer have no upper canine teeth, and the tail is of moderate length. 

 To this group may be referred two very fine species, which have only become 

 extinct comparatively recently. Since the year 1697, when certain of its 

 remains were described by a Dr. Molyneux in the Philosophical Transactions 

 of the Royal Society of London, the gigantic extinct deer of the Irish peat- 

 bogs had been known to science ; while the magnificent proportions attained 

 by its antlers have given it a notoriety not shared by most other animals of a 

 past epoch. Although found more abundantly, and generally in a better 

 state of preservation, in the bogs of Ireland than elsewhere, the Irish deer is 

 by no means confined to the island from which it takes its name. On the 

 contrary, its remains have been obtained from many of the caverns and 

 superficial deposits of both England and the Continent, and its continental 

 range extended from Italy in the south to Russia in the north. In popular 

 language, this deer is generally spoken of as the Irish elk ; but, as is the 

 case with a number of popular terms, this is a misnomer, the animal really 

 being a true deer, referable to the genus Cervus. It is true, indeed, that its 

 broad, palmated antlers present a superficial resemblance to those of the elk; 

 but this no more indicates any close affinity with that animal than do the 

 somewhat similarly palmated antlers of the fallow-deer. Like many other 

 animals, both living and extinct, the Irish deer rejoices in a number of scien- 

 tific names ; but its proper title is Cervus giganteus. It is almost superfluous 

 to mention that the antlers of this magnificent deer are larger than those of 

 any other known species, having a span in some cases of over 11 feet from tip 

 to tip. In form, the antlers have a short and nearly cylindrical beam, given 

 off in a nearly horizontal plane at right angles to the axis of the skull. Near 

 their origin from the skull, there arises a descending brow-tine, which is flat- 

 tened, and generally forked. As soon as the beam expands, it gives off from 

 the front, or lower edge, a trez-tine, nearly opposite to which is a third, or 

 posterior tine on the hinder or upper margin, both these tines being seen 

 fully from the front. Beyond these tines, the antlers expand to their fullest 

 width, and usually terminate in five or six snags, of which the topmost are 

 directed nearly upwards. The second of the extinct species is Ruff's deer 

 (C. ruffi}, hitherto only found in Germany. In place of the outward hori- 

 zontal extension characteristic of the Irish deer, the antlers of Ruff's deer 

 are directed upwards and outwards, nearly after the fashion of a fallow-deer, 

 so that their innermost terminal snags are separated only by a comparatively 

 small interval-. That this deer is closely allied to the Irish deer, and has no 

 such close kinship with the fallow-deer, is, however, proved by the flattened 

 and expanded form of the brow-tine. A further difference from the ordinary 

 Irish deer is exhibited by the different position of the plane of the expanded 

 portion of the antlers. Thus, whereas in the former the whole of their inner 

 surface and the entire trez and posterior tines are visible from the front, in 

 Ruffs deer we see, instead of the inner surface, the front edge and a part of 



