Reviews — J. G. Millais— British Deer. 137 



Many a time a day's digging only produces a head not worth lifting, 

 owing to its being broken in many pieces, or perhaps it is only 

 a dropped antler. 



As to the causes which have led to the extirpation of the larger 

 mammalia, we do not think it necessary to postulate a universal 

 cause or agent of destruction before which all the big herbivora 

 were swept away. Professor Owen long ago pointed out that the 

 large mammals were always the first to suffer from floods or from 

 droughts ; events which happen most frequently within the tropics, 

 but which may occur occasionally in almost any country. 



Nor can we look at the accumulated 'results of subaerial and 

 diluvial action, especially in such an extensive region as Argentina, 

 without pei'ceiving that Eeolian agencies — wind-storms, dust-storms, 

 rain-storms, and floods — acting on the Sierras and higher plateaux for 

 thousands of years, have led to the gradual accumulation of those vast 

 masses of fine material which have built up the great Pampean for- 

 mation, while along the course of the great alluvial valleys cut through 

 its deposits by the rivers flowing from the north, lie buried many 

 hundreds of giant Mylodons, Megatheria, and Glyptodons, once the 

 denizens of the wooded region of Central South America. 



The discovery of thousands of remains of great wingless birds in 

 the superficial deposits of New Zealand has no connection whatever 

 with the destruction of giant Edentates in South America, nor with 

 giant deer in Ireland, save that man the destroyer was for a long 

 period absent from the scene, and the Dinornis and its kindred 

 enjoyed for many centui'ies undisturbed possession of their island- 

 home, the Harpagornis, a large hawk, being the only bird of prey, 

 and no Carnivora having reached New Zealand except seals. 



With man came the hunter-element (see Plate III), and the 

 " fire-stick " ; and the forests, being not unfrequently accidentally 

 lighted, the affrighted game (whether deer or Moas) fled towards 

 the water to escape from the fire, and met their death by drowning 

 in the morasses they attempted to ford. 



In Australia the destruction of the large Marsupialia was probably 

 not unfrequently caused by drought, which has so often proved fatal 

 to the flocks and herds of the squatter in our own time. There, too, 

 also local floods often prove, as in South America, most destructive, 

 although of short duration, and these may even in a single night 

 affect a vast area of country. 



Mr. Millais has figured many fine antlers of Irish deer, notably 

 those forming part of the complete skeleton of Cervus giganteua in 

 Sir Edmund Loder's Museum at Leonardslee (pp. 4 and 9) ; and four 

 heads on p. 19, from Loch Gur, from the Royal Dublin Society, 

 from County Waterford, and from Limerick, which illustrate 

 remarkable divergences in mode of growth. The antlers in these 

 specimens have lost their original crescent-form and become too 

 much flattened out. This may either have been caused when the 

 antlers were softened from lying in the bog, or afterwards, when 

 mounted, they have bent downwards by their own weight. Originally 

 they were certainly more V-shaped. On pp. 14 and 15 are given 



