452 CERVUS. 



the humerus or arm-bone ; rd, the radius or bone of the 

 fore-arm : w, the olecranon or process of the ulna, answering 

 to the bone of the elbow, and which in Ruminants is anchy- 

 losed to the radius ; me, is the metacarpal or cannon-bone 

 of the fore-leg ; phi, 2, 3, the three toe-bones or phalanges 

 of the hoof. 



In all Deer, besides the two toes corresponding to the 

 third and fourth in the pentadactyle foot, the metacarpals 

 of which are blended together to form the cannon-bone, 

 whose bifurcate lower end supports the two hoofs or divi- 

 sions of the cloven foot, there are rudiments of the second 

 and fifth toes, which appear externally as the two small pos- 

 terior supplemental hoofs, ds. In the Rein-deer both the 

 upper and the lower ends of the rudimental metacarpals of 

 these abortive toes are present in the skeleton, the interme- 

 diate part being absent.* I have recognised the upper end 

 of the metacarpal of the inner or second rudimental toe in 

 a collection of the bones of a Megaceros carefully removed 

 from subturbary shell-marl near Limerick. They are slender 

 pointed styles, about three inches in length ; articulated 

 to the bone formed by the confluent trapezoid and os 

 magnum, and to a rough surface on the inner and posterior 

 angle of the upper end of the cannon-bone : a more exten- 

 sive rough surface on the outer and posterior angle would 

 indicate that the proximal end of the fifth or outer meta- 

 carpal had likewise existed, and of larger size, in the perfect 

 skeleton. 



The intermediate parts of both rudimental metacarpals 

 are wanting, as in the Rein-deer ; but the phalanges sup- 

 porting the small spurious hoofs have been recovered, and 

 are represented in fig. 182. The middle phalanx is subcom- 

 pressed, square, about an inch in length ; the ungual 



* Cuvier, loc. cit. p. 18. 



