138 Revieics — J. G. Millais — British Deer. 



two views of a splendid head and antlers from near Tullamore, 

 Ireland, in the possession of the Duke of Westminster, in which 

 the palms are enormously developed. 



There are remains of 19 individuals in the British Museum, 

 comprising 4 complete skeletons, 3 antlered males and 1 of a (horn- 

 less) female ; 2 skulls of hinds from Naull, Co. Dublin ; 8 skulls 

 with antlers which have no special locality save " Later Tertiary 

 deposits, Ireland"; 1 head from Ked Bog, Dunshaughton, Ireland; 

 1 skeleton from Axe Corey, Co. Wexford ; 2 skulls of males with 

 shed antlers from the Dogger Bank ; and 1 head from Russia. 



The remaining types of British Deer — the "Red-deer" {Cervus 

 elnphns) ; the " Fallow-deer " (Cervus dama) ; and the " Roebuck " 

 (Gapreolus caprea) — are so well known in the living state, that 

 they would appear to have little claim on the attention of the 

 palaeontologist. When, however, we study the Pleistocene deposits 

 of our Island, we are led to find that even these denizens of our 

 parks have a more or less remote geological history, not wholly 

 devoid of interest. 



Taking the red-deer as the typical repi'esentative of a great group 

 of Cervidse, which are spread over Europe, North Africa, Asia (north 

 of the Himalayas), and North America, we find these are mainly 

 characterized by the conformation of the antlers. In this type the 

 brow- and bez-tine are both present ; the beam is nearly cylindrical, 

 subdividing into two or more points at the summit. 



The gi'oup of allied species would include the red-deer (Cervus 

 elaplius) ; the Canadian wapiti (C. Canadensis) ; C. maral ; the 

 Thian-shan deer (C. eustephamis or G. Leudorfi) ; the Amnrland deer 

 ( C. xanthopygus) ; C. corsicanus ; the Barbary deer ( C. barbarus) ; and 

 possibly also the Hangul or Cashmir deer (C. Kashrniriensis). Our 

 brickearths, cave-deposits, and peat-bogs also yield evidence of 

 deer-remains far larger in size than those now living, so that 

 there can be little doubt that, ancestrally at any rate, the great 

 red-deer and the wapiti were closely related. 



In Flower & Lydekker's great work on Mammals, living and 

 extinct, stress is laid on the absence of a cup at the surroyals, 

 as distinguishing the wapiti from the red-deer ; nevertheless, many 

 red-deers' antlers have no trace of the cup whatever. Indeed, 

 after studying a long series of them one cannot help feeling 

 that the richly crowned antlers of certain red-deer from the peat, 

 notably the pair obtained from the bed of the River Boyne at 

 Drogheda, Ireland (part of the Egerton Collection), owe their 

 unusual development to specially favourable environments and 

 abundance of food, as exemplified in the collection of magnificently 

 crowned heads preserved in the Castle of Moritzburg by H.M. the 

 King of Saxony (sixty of the choicest of which have been figured 

 by Dr. A. B. Meyer, Director of the Royal Zoological Museum in 

 Dresden, in two volumes, royal folio, one vol. published in 18S3 ' 

 and one in 1887). 



In Mr. Millais's work (p. 23) he writes : "The Warnham deer are 

 second to none in this country in the matter of body and horn. 



