MEGACEROS HIBERNICUS. 



445 



Cerfu bois gigantesques, CUVIER, Ossemens Fossiles, 4to, 1823, torn. iv. p. 



70. 

 Fossil Elk of Ireland, PARKINSON, Organic Remains, vol. iii. p. 313, pi. 



xx. fig. ii, (after Molywux.*) 



Cervus Ifibernus, DKSMAREST, Mammalogie, pp. 446, 685. 



Cervus megaceros, HART, A Description of the Skeleton of the Fossil 



Deer of Ireland, 8vo. 1830. 

 Fossil Dama of Ireland, HAMILTON SMITH, Synopsis of the Species of 



Mammalia, Griffith's Cuvier, 8vo., 1827, p. 306. 

 Megaceros Hibernicus, OWEN, Report of British Association, 1843, p. 



237. 



DR. MOLYNEUX, to whom we owe the first account of 

 the remains of the Gigantic Irish Deer, and by whom they 

 were regarded as a proof that the American Moose was 

 formerly common in Ireland, prefaces his description with 

 the following observation. " That no real species of living 

 creatures is so utterly extinct as to be lost entirely out of 

 the world since it was first created, is the opinion of many 

 naturalists ; and it is grounded on so good a principle of 

 Providence taking care in general of all its animal pro- 

 ductions, that it deserves our assent."* 



The numerous and incontrovertible, though marvellous, 

 results of modern Palaeontology, place in a strong light the 

 danger of such a ' petitio principii, 1 or presumption of the 

 ways in which the benefits of a good Providence are dis- 

 pensed ; and the fallacy of the conclusion founded thereon, 

 in the present instance, is shown both by the now well 

 determined diagnosis of the American Moose, whose di- 

 mensions were much exaggerated in the earlier notices 

 of the wild beasts of the North American colonies, *f* and 

 by the exact comparisons of the osteological characters 

 of the Megaceros with those of all other known Cervine 



* Philosophical Transactions, vol. xix. p. 485. 



J- Molyneux cites 'Jocelyn's New England Rarities' as the source of his 

 ideas regarding the American Moose. 



