108 ON CEKVUS BELGRANDI FROM EAST ANO-LIA. 



Cervits qiqanteus series. The large size of the Pakefield specimen and the condition of 

 the sutures of the skull preclude the idea that it can be a young form, and there is every 

 reason to suppose that the characters shown by it are those of the adult animal. The 

 crown has become conspicuously palmated, but the long tines found in C. gigantews are 

 at present indicated merely by a slight serration of its distal border. Another point 

 which seems to me to deserve special notice is the direction of the vascular grooves on 

 the beam of the antler. In the Forest-Bed specimens these run in an accurately longi- 

 tudinal course up the posterior and ventral surface of the beam, while in the Irish Deer, 

 as well as in the specimens of C. giganteus from theBarrington gravel, the grooves have 

 an elongated spiral course. This may indicate a torsion of the whole antler. It is a 

 noteworthy fact that the palmated crown of the Irish Deer is much more horizontally 

 placed than that of C. belgrandi, in which the direction is very oblique, the dorsal 

 surface looking somewhat backwards. If the anterior edge of the crown in G. belgrandi 

 were depressed by the torsion of the beam, so as to bring the paltnation into a 

 horizontal position, this new position would not only agree with that found in the Irish 

 Deer, but it would result in a torsion of the vascular grooves, which would thereupon 

 assume the spiral course characteristic of the latter. G. dama agrees with the Irish 

 Deer in this respect. Although the brow-tine of the Irish Deer may have the same 

 curvature at its base as that in C. belgrandi, it comes off immediately above the burr 

 and from the extreme front edge of the beam. The second tine of the Irish Deer is 

 more nearly opposite the back-tine than in C. belgrandi, and the palmation often 

 begins soon enough to include it, instead of commencing above the back-tine, as in 



that species. 



The geological occurrence of C. belgrandi agrees well with the conclusion above 

 indicated. Its occurrence in the Forest-Bed is itself an evidence of its relative 

 antiquity, while the existence of the species in the Red Crag (Boyd Dawkins) carries 

 this form further back than any of the other races of Giant Deer. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE XXI. 



Fig. 1. Cervus belgrandi. — Skull and antlers, from behind. X y. The specimen was 



obtained at Pakefield, near Lowestoft, a, burr ; b, first tine ; d, d', back-tine. 



The tines c, which are not visihle in this position, come off from the front 



edge of the beam, midway between b and d. 

 Fig. 2. View of the same specimen from the right side. The figure having been drawn 



from a photograph, the parts of the right antler appear much larger than 



they really are. b, first tine ; c, second tine ; d, d', back-tine. 

 Fig. 3. Atlas vertebra of the same specimen, from the ventral side. The end of 'the 



right transverse process is partially obscured by the matrix. 

 Fig. 4. Axis vertebra of the same specimen, from the right side. The end of the neural 



spine is partially obscured by the matrix. 



