THE ORIENTAL MIGRATION. 247 



Ireland. Its remains have been found fossil in the 

 marls and caves of Ireland, and in the Forest-Bed, 

 as well as in a large number of caves in England. 

 The history of the Red Deer in other countries 

 is very similar. In Scandinavia it flourished as 

 far north as the sixty-eighth degree of latitude, 

 whereas it is now quite extinct on the main- 

 land, though still lingering on in some of the 

 western islands. Denmark and Switzerland know 

 it no more, and it is almost extinct in Belgium. 

 Nearly throughout Europe where it occurs, its 

 numbers are diminishing, greatly owing, perhaps, to 

 the relentless persecution by man, but its gradual 

 disappearance must likewise be partly due to other 

 causes. Formerly it inhabited every country of 

 Europe and all the larger islands. It still exists 

 in Corsica and Sardinia, and at an earlier period 

 it was also met with on the island of Malta. 

 The Red Deer found in Corsica and Sardinia is 

 smaller than that inhabiting Central Europe, and is 

 by some authorities regarded as a distinct species, 

 which has been named Cervus corsicanus. But 

 Sir Victor Brooke has pointed out that the antlers 

 of some of the Scotch Deer agree in every point 

 with those of the Sardinian species. Indeed, the 

 West European Red Deer altogether is a small- 

 antlered form, compared with the Eastern one. This 

 character, however, is only a racial one, and not of 

 specific value. In the pleistocene deposits of Eastern 

 and Central Europe, a very large-antlered race has 



