Nov. 26, 1874J 



NA TURE 



Among the remains of animals in the Swiss Pile- 

 dwellings also have occurred fragments of horns appa- 

 rently belonging to the Fallow Deer. RUtimeyer, in his 

 " Fauna der Plahlbauten der Schweiz," says as follows : — 



" A number of flat bits of shed antlers with smooth sur- 

 face, in the collection of Oberst Schwat, of liiel, found in the 

 Lake of Biel, can, to judge from their dimensions and form, 

 be only referred to the Fallow Deer. Similar bits from 

 IMeilen, perfectly agreeing with the abnormal forms which 

 the Fallow Deer's antlers present in aged individuals, can 

 only be referred to this deer. Yet I must remark that no 

 perfect antlers of this animal from the Pile-dwellings have 

 come under my observation, nor even examples of the 

 skull, which, next to the antlers, would give the most 

 certain indications of this deer. Incontrovertible evi- 

 dence of the spontaneous existence of this deer north of 

 the Alps remains therefore still to be obtained." 



On the other hand, there is positive proof of the exist- 

 ence of this deer in the " Terremare " of Italy — the 

 equivalent of the Swiss '' Pfahlbauten." In the Museum 

 of Modena are two fragments of antlers, which Prof 

 Canestrini has spoken of in his " Oggelti trovati nelle 

 terremare del Modenese," and subsequently in Mortillet's 

 " Materiaux pour I'histoire positive et philosophique de 

 de I'homme." In 1870 Dr. Carlo Boni, former director of 

 the Museum of Modena, had the kindness, at my request, 

 to send these fragments to me at Basel (where I passed 

 the winter of 1869-70), for comparison with my speci- 

 men from Olmiitz, and Prof. RUtimeyer saw them too. 

 He declared, as regards one of them (marked " 624 Gor- 

 zano"), that it could not certainly be referred otherwise 

 than to Ccrvits damn. 



Besides Moravia, the Fallow Deer appears to have ex- 

 isted formerly in the bordering country of Lower Austria. 

 At Pulkau, near Eggenburg, south of the Thaya, was 

 found, in a sacrificial heap of former days examined by 

 Dr. Woldrich, along with ancient vases, stone, bone, and 

 horn implements, remains of the dog, ox, and Red Deer, 

 likewise a fragment of an antler, which was " apparently a 

 frontal snag of the Fallow Deer." * 



In the Middle Ages the Fallow Deer still inhabited the 

 woods of Switzerland, as appears from the benedictions 

 of the monk Ekkehard, of St. tjall, of the eleventh cen- 

 tury,! and as is shown by the German edition of Gesner's 

 '• Thierbuch,"j even at a later period. In the latter work 

 it is said, p. 84 : " Der gtmeine Damhirsch wird an 

 vilen anderen Orten gejagt, auch in den Waldern d'Helve- 

 tieren als bey Lucern offt und vil gefangen : nennen es 

 gemeiniglicti Dam, Damlin od.' Dannhirsch, besser Dam- 

 hirsch." 



In a Latin edition of Gesner's " Historia Animalium,"§ 

 now before me, however, I find no notice of the presence 

 of Ccrvtis dajiia in Switzerland. It is only said (i. p. 30S) : 

 " Nostra vero dama etiam in Europa capitur, cum alibi 

 tum circa Oceanum Germanicum, ut audio. Germani 

 vulgo vocant dam vel damlin, vel dannhirtz, vel damhirtz 

 potius; Itali daino, nonnulli danio; Galli dain vel daim : 

 Hispani gamo vel corza." 



In both editions of Gesner, moreover, Latin and Ger- 

 man, the Fallow Deer is unmistakably figured. 



According to the writing on Spekle's map of Alsace, 

 there were Fallow Deer in Wasgau up to 1576. || 



In the neighbourhood of Rome, besides, have been 

 found numerous fragments of Fallow Deers' horns, along 

 with remains of Hycena spelaa, Cervits iaratidus, and 

 Rliinoceros iiiei^ar/iiiius, in a Post-pliocene travertine on 

 the heights of Monte delle Gioie.lF 



* See Woldrich in " Mitth. d. Anthrop. Gesellsch. in Wien," bd. iii. pp. 

 13 and 19, PI. iv. Fig. 54 (1873). 



t " Imbellem dan-.nam laciat benediclio summanl," vers. 128 of the 

 "Bened. ad mensas Ekkehardi"' in the "Mitth. d. Antiquar. Gesellech. ^u 

 Zurich," iii p iii. 



t horer's edition: Heidelberg, 1606. 



§ Editio secunda ; Francofurii. 1620. 



II Gerard, " Paune historique de I'Alsace : " Colmar, 1871, p. 328. 



f Trutat et Cartailhac, " ALiteriaux pour i'histoire dc rhomme," V^^' 

 ann'ee iS5g. p. 299. 



Finally, we may remark that the Fallow Deer appears to 

 be figured upon the Assyrian monuments ; and, more- 

 over, so faithfully ?s not to be mistaken for any other 

 species of deer. We have only to look at Plates xxxv. 

 and liii. of Layard's "Nineveh" to see this. Again 

 amongst the pictures upon the walls of the Egyptiaii 

 tombs this species of deer is found. Its hieroglyphical 

 name is Hanen.* 



We now come to the present geographical distribution 

 of the Fallow Deer. Occasionally this deer still occurs 

 wild in Western Asia. Tristram notices it as found in 

 Mount Tabor, in Palestine, and in the woods between 

 that mountain and the gorge of the Litany River,t and 

 ''met with it once about ten miles west of the Sea of 

 Galilee." Lartet had previously obtained teeth of this 

 deer from the bonebreccia of the Lebanon.! 



In Africa, according to Hartmann, the Fallow Deer is 

 found at the present time in the shrubby desert-valleys 

 and on the edges of the cultivated lands in Tunis, 

 Tripoli, and Barquah, up to the Wadi Nahun.§ Gervais 

 speaks of it as found in the neighbourhood of La Calle, 

 in Algeria. II Loche, in his " History of the Mammals of 

 Algeria," says that it is now rare in that province. 



In the Island of Sardinia, in Ceiti's time. Fallow Deer 

 were found in enormous quantities in all parts of the 

 island, especially in the plain of Sindia.lT Not less than 

 3,000 head were at that time killed every year in Sar- 

 dinia. It is remarkable that in this island the Fallow Deer 

 is called Crabolu, corrupted from Caprioto — meaning 

 Roe, which last animal is not found in Sardinia ; whereas 

 the Red Deer is m=t with occasionally, especially in the 

 eastern portion, but attains a much less size here than on 

 the Continent. According to Bonaparte and Cornalia 

 (" Fauna d'ltalia") this species of deer is still common in 

 above-named island. 



In Spain it seems that the Fallow Deer is seldom found 

 wild at the present time— at least A. E. Biehm, in his 

 " Beitrag zur Zuologischen Geographic Spaniens" in the 

 Berliner Zeitschr. f. Allgemeine Erdkunde (1858, s. loi), 

 can speak from personal observation only of those he 

 met wall in parks. On the other hand, Graells mentions 

 Cerviis dama as an inhabitant of the Sierra Guadarrama. 

 The Spaniards of the present day call the animal " Gamo" 

 or '■ Paleto." According to Buffon (Hist. Nat. tome vi., 

 Paris, 1756, s. 170), the Fallow Deer of Spain in his time 

 was nearly as large as the Red Deer, and had a longer 

 tail than the same animal in other parts of the world. 

 Gerard (Faune Hist, de I'Alsace, s. 327) tells us that this 

 deer is found to tbis day wild {a I etai naturet) in France, 

 in Nivernais, the Cevennes, and in the Alps of Dauphiny. 

 He gives no authority, and Gervais, in his " Zoologie et 

 Pal^ontologie," says nothing about it. 



As for Greece, Blasuis says, in his " Saugethiere 

 Deutschlands," Braunschweig, 1857, s. 455, that Bdon 

 found the Fallow Deer in the Greek Islands. But Erhard 

 does not mention it in his " Fauna of the Cyclades." Von 

 der Miihle, however, speaks of it in his " Beitragen zur 

 Ornithologie Gnechenlands," 1844, s. I. 



From the foregoing data the following conclusions may 

 be formed : — 



1. The Fallow Deer lived in prehistoric times, partially 

 in company with other extinct mammals on the Lebanon, 

 in Southern Russia, Italy, France, Upper Austria, Wur- 

 temburg, Baden, Saxony, near Hamburg, and in Den- 

 mark. It appears also to have occurred in Switzerland 

 and in England, likewise in Moravia and Lower Austria. 



2. Within the historic period it was found in Egypt 

 and Assyria, and even in the later part of the Middle 

 Ages in Switzerland and Alsace. 



* Hartmann in Brugach, " Zeitschr. f. iEgypt. Sprache und Altcrthumsk." 

 Jahrg. ii p. 21. 



t V. Z. S., 1866. p. 86. 



I Bull Soc. Geologique, France. Vol. xxii. p. 54a. 

 § Berliner Zeitschr. f. Erdkunde, 1868, p. 252. 



II Zool. et Paleontol. Francaise. Ed. ii. p. 145. 



IT " I quadnipedi di Snrdegna," 1774. PP- 104. log. 



