MEGACEROS HIBERNICUS. 



459 



in shell-marl at Rathcannon, Fi 9- 187 - 



observes that "of eight heads 

 which we found, none were 

 without antlers ; the variety 

 in character, also, was such 

 as to induce me to imagine, 

 that possibly the females 

 were not devoid of these ap- 

 pendages."' 1 * 



Cuvier was of the same 

 opinion, and he thought that 

 the Megaceros in this re- 

 spect might resemble the 

 Rein-deer. To this conclu- 

 sion, also, Dr. Hart is much 

 disposed to subscribe, from 

 having observed that these 

 parts presented differences 

 in size and strength, which 

 appear not to be dependant 

 on difference of age ; and he 

 cites an example of the skull of the Megaceros, with teeth 

 much worn down, in which the antlers were less expanded 

 and one-sixth less than those belonging to an evidently 

 younger individual, and which, therefore, he concluded 

 might not unlikely be the male, and the older specimen 

 the female. But in all Deer, the antlers, when the animal 

 has passed its prime, begin to be shorn of those fair pro- 

 portions that characterise the vigour of life ; and the di- 

 minished size of the antlers of the aged skull of the Mega- 

 ceros in Trinity College, shows that their development in 



Skull of Female Megaceros, th nut. 

 size* 



* ' Description of the Skeleton of the Fossil Deer of Ireland, Cerws megaceros,' 

 by John Hart, &c. 8vo. 1830, p. 15. 



