THE ORIENTAL MIGRATION. 249 



especially if we look upon the Asiatic, North 

 American, and North African forms as varieties of 

 the same species. 



If the Red Deer were of European origin, it must 

 have come into existence at a time when Malta was 

 part of the mainland, when North Africa and the 

 British Islands were connected with the continent of 

 Europe, and of course before the deposition of the 

 Forest-Bed. Such land-connections existed probably 

 during the Pliocene Epoch. Migrants would have 

 wandered from Europe into Asia. These would 

 have developed into larger races, which again 

 furnished emigrants for North America. The latter 

 crossed by the old land-connection which once joined 

 America and Asia at Behring's Straits. During 

 pleistocene times the large Siberian race would now 

 have re-migrated to the home of its ancestors in 

 Europe, for we find the remains only in Central 

 and Eastern Europe, indicating that an invasion of 

 the Red Deer from Asia must then have taken 

 place. 



Against this view of the European origin of the 

 Red Deer, it may be urged that deer are known from 

 Indian as well as from European pliocene deposits, 

 and that a migration could have taken place from 

 the Oriental Region to Europe just as easily as 

 from the latter to Asia. The majority of the species 

 of the genus Ceruus (in a wide sense), moreover, 

 are Asiatic, ranging to Borneo, Sumatra, and the 

 Philippine Islands, all of which islands have been 



