446 CERVUS. 



animals. The great extinct Irish Deer surpassed the 

 largest Wapiti, or Elk, in size, and much exceeded them 

 in the dimensions of the antlers. The pair first described 

 and figured in the ' Philosophical Transactions, 1 measured 

 ten feet ten inches in a straight line from the extreme tip 

 of the right to that of the left antler ; the length of each 

 antler from the burr to the extreme tip in a straight 

 line was five feet two inches, and the breadth of the 

 expanded part, or palm, was one foot, ten inches and a 

 half. Dr. Molyneux, after giving the dimensions of 

 the fossil head and its noble attire, says, " Doubtless all the 

 rest of the parts of the body answered these in due pro- 

 portion ;" and he infers the amount of the superiority of 

 bulk of the great Irish Deer over the ' fairest buck ' ac- 

 cordingly. 



Recent discoveries of the entire skeleton of the Mega- 

 ceros have, however, shown that the proportions of the 

 trunk and limbs to the vast antlers were not the same with 

 which we are familiar in the existing Deer best provided 

 with these weapons, but that the antlers were both abso- 

 lutely and relatively larger in the great extinct species: 

 this, in fact, constitutes one of its best characteristics, and 

 involves other differences in the form and proportions of 

 its osseous framework. One of the modifications in the 

 skeleton of the Megaceros, which relates to the vast weight 

 of the head and neck, is the stronger proportions of its 

 limbs ; and another and more striking character is the great 

 size of the vertebrae of the neck, which form the column 

 immediately supporting the head and its massive append- 

 ages. The extent of these modifications may be appreciated 

 by the following dimensions of the skeleton of the Mega- 

 ceros, and of that of the great American Moose (Alces 

 palmata, var. Americana). 



