448 CERVUS. 



at the Royal College of Surgeons in London, from which 

 I have composed the figure engraved in cut 182, and 

 which I believe to convey an exact idea of the port and 

 proportions of the noble extinct animal. 



The antlers of the Megaceros spring from the extremities 

 of a strong transverse semicylindrical eminence, which 

 crosses the top of the skull rather nearer the orbits than 

 the occiput ; the base of each antler is encircled by the 

 rugged and perforated ridge or ring of bone called the 

 ' burr,' or ' pearl 1 (^?), immediately above which the beam 

 sends forward the first branch, or brow-antler (5r), which 

 is sometimes simple sometimes expanded and bifurcate at 

 the extremity rarely divided into three points. The 

 beam or shaft (5), is usually subcylindrical, and so con- 

 tinues, gradually enlarging for about one-fourth the length 

 of the entire antler, where it expands into the broad and 

 massive subtriangular plate of bone, called the ' palm,' 

 which sends off from six to nine, but commonly seven 

 branches. The first (b z), comes off from the fore-part, is 

 directed forwards, and usually inclines inwards ; it answers 

 to the ' bezantler ' in the Red-deer. The next branch 

 is sent off, like that in the Fallow-deer, from the back part 

 of the palm a little above or beyond the bezantler; all 

 the remaining branches, usually five in number, are con- 

 tinued from the fore-part and the extremity of the palm. 

 The graceful oblique twist commencing in the beam is 

 continued in the palm, so as to turn its convex surface 

 obliquely forwards and downwards, and its concave sur- 

 face upwards, backwards, and with a slight inclination 

 towards that of the opposite antler, when the head is car- 

 ried in the horizontal position. The longest branches are 

 usually the two which come off beyond the bezantler from 

 the fore-part of the palm (s); those from the extremity 



