418 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY, 



III. (Mosclius). The Musk Deer are so called from the 

 species whence the suhstance called "musk" is derived. 

 They are all distinguished by the absence of horns. Their 

 habitat is the mountains of Central and Southern Asia. 



IV. (Cervus). The Deer combine in the highest degree, 

 the characteristics of elegance of form, grace, and fleetness. 

 The Elk or Moose Deer of America ( Alces palmata), exceeds 

 in size any species now living. It was, however, much sur- 

 passed by that extinct species known as the " Irish Elk,"* 

 and especially as regards the size of the antlers. In the 

 Moose, the span of the antlers between the extreme tips is 

 four feet; in the extinct Irish species, it is eight feet, and 

 the vertebrae of the neck are proportionally larger, so as to 

 bear the weight of the head and its massive appendages. 

 The name of Irish Elk is objectionable, as the animal was not 

 an Elk but allied to the Fallow Deer; and also as the remains 

 are not peculiar to Ireland. They have been met with both 

 in the Isle of Man and in England. In the latter country 

 they are found associated with the fossil remains of a Mammoth, 

 a Rhinoceros, and other extinct mammalia of which they had 

 been cotemporaries.t 



Of the three species of Deer which are at present living in 

 these countries, the Fallow Deer (Cervus dama), is that 

 which is the common denizen of the parks. The Red Deer 

 (C. elaphus) which is the largest species, still exists in numbers 

 amid the solitude of the Scottish mountains, and is not quite 

 extinct in some retired localities in Ireland. J The Roebuck 

 (C. capreolus), which is smaller than either of the other two, 

 is unknown in Ireland and rare in England, but is yet to 

 be found enjoying a wild life among some of the wooded 

 mountains of Scotland. 



V. (Camelopardalis). The Giraffe or Camelopard (Fig. 

 317), of which only two species are known, is confined to the 

 continent of Africa. It browses upon the foliage and tender 

 shoots of trees, and has a tongue so constituted as to serve 

 as an instrument for pulling them down, as would be done by 

 the proboscis of the Elephant. 



VI. (Antilope). The traveller among the Alps or the 



* It now forms the representative of a distinct sub-genus, and is named 

 Megaceros Hibernicus, from the Greek mega great, ceras a horn. 

 t Owen on British Fossil Mammalia, 

 j Thompson's Report on the Fauna of Ireland. 



