94 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



are much larger, and that the breed is not quite extinct in 

 Europe ; this appears, if in reality it be the same species as 

 ours, from a figure of the horns published by Wildungen, 

 to which the following dimensions are annexed:— 



Ft. Ius. 



Right horn in circumference of the burr . . 1 1 1 



Ditto of beam above brow-antler 7| 



Length from tip to burr along the curve . . 4 



Distance from outer tip to outer tip 5 



Ditto between the inner tips 3 6| 



These dimensions in Rhineland feet and inches give a 

 proportion of about one-fourth more than a large German 

 Stag. The individual specimen reported not to be of the 

 largest, was shot in 1815 on the estate of Councellor V. 

 Radautz, in the Bukowine, and the horns were presented 

 by him to Count Erbach-Erbach. These do not show that 

 they belonged to an animal more than seven or eight years 

 old, carrying only fifteen antlers in all. 



The Stag is an inhabitant of every part of Europe, except- 

 ing Lapland. In England they still exist in Gloucestershire ; 

 and the North-West of Devon and Scotland breed them 

 also. They spread over Russia and Tartary to Japan ; but 

 that of Corsica, not larger than a fallow-deer, is, if not a 

 distinct species, certainly a permanent variety, and assimi- 

 lates most with the Stag of Barbary, where the species is 

 likewise found. Its colour is darker, legs shorter, and the 

 antlers terminate in bifurcations only : if we may consider 

 that fact as general, from the specimen figured in Buffon, 

 compared with three individuals brought by an English 

 gentleman some years ago from Barbary to this country. 

 It is probably this animal which is figured in the Catacombs 

 of Alexandria*. 



* See the drawings of Luigi Meyer, by order of Sir Robert Ainslie. 

 This is supposed to be the Bekerel Wash of Shawe. 



