48 NATURAL HISTORY. 



Asia, and America. In Africa none occur south of the Sahara, they being there replaced by 

 members of the Bovine section of the order. None are found in Australia, and in America they 

 are far less common than in Great Britain. To understand the peculiar features and the distribu- 

 tion of the various species, it is necessary to classify them in groups of kindred genera, most falling 

 into sections which are distinguishable without difficulty. 



In arranging the different members of the Deer-tribe for description, there are peculiarities in 

 their outward conformation which agree with those internal differences upon which all correct notions 

 of relationship alone can be established. In classifying animals, naturalists must always be guided 

 by the totality of the structure of each member of each group ; but, as in describing them to those 

 who have not made the minute details of their organisation their special study it is impossible to 

 lay stress on all the various parts which have to be included by the student in arriving at the desired 

 result, those outward features only can be mentioned which are found to tally with their total 

 structure, namely, their osteology, their visceral anatomy, and their muscular arrangement. As an 

 example of the relative importance of different external structures, we may mention that the late 

 Dr. J. E. Gray, in his Catalogue of the Ruminant Mammalia in the British Museum, gives the fol- 

 lowing arrangement of the genera, in which the length of the tail suggests one distribution of them, 

 whilst the shape of the antlers is in favour of another, which is very different : 



2. Tail elongate, with longer hair 

 1. Tail very short or clubbed. at the end. 



(Mantchurian Deer. 

 Japanese Beer. 

 Fallow Deer. 

 Eld's Deer. 



Antlers rusine 



Barasingha Deer. 

 Schomburgk's Deer. 

 Sambur and its near allies. 



Eoebuck. 



Chinese Elaphure. Antlers capreolme. 



Spotted Axis. 



This table is useful as a means of comparing the tails of the different genera ; but other points 

 of structure do not in the least support the classification suggested by that appendage, as a result 

 of which it has to be ignored in the consideration of distant affinities, although, where questions of 

 specific proximity are concerned, it is found to be of considerable value. 



The antlers render much more trustworthy information in the determination and expression of 

 relationships ; and their characterising features can be most readily grasped by having an ideal type 

 in the mind wherewith to compare all aberrant and complicated specimens. This ideal type may 

 be derived in one or other of two ways. The first of these is from the study of the antlers as they 

 are each year developed in any given kind of Deer, commencing with its earliest age. For example, 

 in the Common Red Deer : in the spring of the year following its birth the antlers are nothing 

 more than straight, conical, and unbranched "beams," the animal being then known as a " Brocket." 

 In the following spring the antler has, besides the " beam," a small branch from its base, directed 

 forwards, known as the "brow antler;" it is then termed " Spayad." In the third year an extra 

 front branch is formed, known as the " tres," and the whole antler is larger. This " tres " is 

 sometimes seen in the smaller antler of the Spayad. In the fourth year the brow-antler is doubled, 

 to form the " brow " and " bez-tyne," at the same time that the top of the main beam divides into 

 the " stir-royals " of the " Staggard," or four-year male. In the fifth year the sur-royals become more 

 numerous, the whole antler of the " Stag " being heavier than previously, only to be exceeded in 

 weight by those of the fully adult " Great Hart," with ten or more " points," each being larger and 

 longer than the year before. In Great Britain the conditions of life and the food are not of the 

 quality which develops first-rate antlers, at the same time that it is in Scotland, at least the habit 

 to shoot those with the finest heads, and so leave the indifferent specimens to perpetuate their 

 species. In some of the ancient forests of Germany superb heads of the Red Deer are to be obtained, 

 whilst in several of the old castles of that country antler trophies are preserved as memorials of sport 

 in times gone by, with as many as six-and-sixty points. Lord Powerscourt has in his possession a 

 pair with five-and-f orty tynes. 



The second way is from the study of the antlers of the species in which they are simple, in 



