THE FOREST-BED OF EAST ANGLIA. 105 
A most interesting specimen, referred to Cervus dama, has been described by Keilhack ! 
from Belzig, 10 miles south-west of Berlin, It would not be easy to find a specimen 
affording a more complete transition from C. belgrandi to the modern C. dama than 
this one, and I have accordingly reproduced one of Keilhack’s figures of the right antler 
(woodcut, p. 104). The specimen far exceeds in size all the Fallow-deer measured by 
Keilhack, the base of the beam being no less than 180 mm. in circumference, as com- 
pared with 132 mm., the mean of the measurements of the recent individuals given by the 
same author, It further approaches C. belgrandiin the scalloped edge of the posterior 
part of the palmation and in the downward curvature of the large brow-tine, which, 
however, originates immediately above the burr. The brow-tine appears from the 
figures to spring from the beam somewhat on its posterior side, as in the Forest-Bed 
form. ‘The affinity of Keilhack’s specimen to C, dama is, however, shown by the angle 
made by the antlers with the skull, the direction being much less horizontal than in 
C. belgrandi, and by the inclusion of the back-tine in the palmation, from which it 
projects in much the same way as in the recent Fallow-deer. The beam terminates in 
a short but distinct snag at the distal and anterior edge of the crown, but the interval 
between this and the back-tine has a scalloped edge closely resembling that of the 
Pakefield specimen. Nehring, in remarking on the Belzig specimen, ina paper which 
preceded Keilhack’s memoir, expresses the opinion that it must be regarded, if not as 
an actual C. dama, at least as a direct ancestor of that species. 
The Belzig specimen indicates in the clearest way the probable derivation of the 
modern C. dama from forms resembling C. be/lgrandi, the principal changes which 
have taken place being apparently the diminution in size, the approximation of the 
crowns of the two antlers by the assumption of a less horizontal position, the inclusion 
of the back-tine in the palmation, and the replacement of the serrations of the crown 
by the snags which characterize the recent Fallow-deer. The discovery of the Belzig 
specimen and that of the form here described go far towards filling up the gap between 
C. giganteus and C. dama, to the existence of which attention is called by Riitimeyer *, 
in insisting on the affinity of these two forms. It may be noted that the immature 
antlers 4 of C. dama have the posterior edge of the crown denticulated in a way strikingly 
suggestive of C. belgrandi. 
The resemblance of C. lelgrandi to C. giganteus is no less striking. Pohlig® has 
1 K. Keilhack, “ Ueber einen Damhirseh aus dem deutschen Diluvium,” Jahrb. k. Preuss. geolog. Landes- 
anstalt (1887), 1888, p. 283, pl. xi. 
2 « Ueber das fossile Vorkommen yon Cervus dama .... in Norddeutschland,” SB. Ges. naturf. Berlin, 
1883, p. 69. 
® “ Beitriige zu einer natiirlichen Geschichte der Hirsche,” Abhandl. Schweiz. pal. Gesellsch. x. 1883, p.111. 
‘ Of. Cuvier, “ Recherches sur les Ossemens Fossiles,” 3rd ed. t. iv. 1825, pl. lii. figs, 28, 29. 
5 « Die Cerviden des thiiringischen Diluvial-Lravertines, mit Beitriigen tiber andere diluviale und iiber recente 
Hirschformen,” Paleontographica, xxxix. 1892, p. 215, 
