246 HISTORY OF THE EUROPEAN FAUNA. 



a very long time. Hence its results can be traced 

 from one corner of Europe to the other. We have 

 seen that the Siberian migration only commenced 

 after the first portion of the Glacial period had passed 

 away. The Oriental, however, persisted throughout, 

 or at any rate for the greater part of that period. It 

 commenced ages before it, in miocene times, or even 

 earlier. And as the ^Egean Sea, which broke up the 

 highway of the Oriental migrants, is only of recent 

 formation, there was a steady westward march for a 

 very considerable time. No doubt the migration was 

 also favoured by the fact that scarcely any formidable 

 barriers had to be crossed. 



Many instances might be quoted of the same 

 species forming part of the Oriental and also of the 

 Siberian migration, but as a rule the Siberian mi- 

 grant belongs to a distinct variety, or has such well- 

 marked racial characters as to be at once detected 

 from its more southern relative. Among the ex- 

 amples of Oriental migrants which I have occasion 

 to bring forward, such instances will be specially 

 dealt with. 



In its wild state the Red Deer (Cervus elaphus) is 

 almost extinct in the British Islands, though it still 

 occurs in the moorlands of Devonshire and Somerset- 

 shire in England, in the south-west of Ireland, and 

 in some localities in Scotland. Fifty years ago it was 

 also found wild in several other of the Irish western 

 counties ; and in the seventeenth century it was 

 common in most of the mountainous districts of 



