ScHARFF — On the Origin of tJie European Fauna. 483 



imdoubted Asiatic origin enttring Europe in the south-east, then 

 travelling along the [Mediterranean to South--svesteru Europe, and 

 only then turning north along the shores of the Atlantic. 



Among the Mammalia, I might mention the red deer {Cervus 

 elajylxus) as a species which has probably reached Ireland from South- 

 western Europe. Not that I would place its centre of origin in 

 that part of the world, for it almost certainly originated in Asia, 

 but that geographical conditions at the time of its migrations to 

 Europe were such (as I have already indicated) that it had na 

 proper means of spreading over the central and northern portions 

 except fi'om that particular region. 



In tracing the present range of the red deer, we have to bear 

 in mind that there are a nujnber of forms very closely allied to 

 Cervtis elaphus^ viz. C. canadensis, C. maral, C. corsicanus, C. harharus, 

 C. cashnerianiis, C. affinis, C. eustepliamis, and C. ccanthopygus. Sir 

 Victor Brooke (13) has already referred to the fact that the antlers of 

 C. eustephanus cannot be distinguished from those of C. canadensis. A 

 great similarity is said by Prof. [N'ehring (62 1) to exist between many of 

 the antlers found in European post-Glacial depositsand the recent antlers 

 of C. canadensis ; and he is inclined to refer them, along with the large 

 antlered Asiatic C. eustephanus, C. xanthopygus, etc., to the same species, 

 and with this view Prof . "Woldrich agrees (93). Then again C. maral 

 is looked upon as a variety of C. canadensis, and identical with C. 

 eustephanus and C. xantJiopygv.s, by Tcherski (88) ; and there can be no 

 doubt as to the specific identity with C. elaplms of C. corsicamis and 

 C. larlarus. 



It seems altogether probable that all these forms are but races or 

 varieties of the red deer (C. elaplius). However, in the shape of the 

 antler, we can separate two groups, one with short and the other with 

 long and powerful ones. The former inhabits jS"orthem Africa, the 

 Mediterranean islands, Ireland, and "Western Europe generally, gradu- 

 ating towards the east into the larger form which occurs in Asia, I!^orth 

 America, the Crimea, and in the Caucasus, but is now practically 

 extinct in other parts of Europe. 



Sir Tictor Brooke indicated, in his interesting monograph of the 

 Cervidse (13), that their early ancestors spread probably from the 

 eastern Palsearctic and the Indian regions westward into Europe, and 

 eastward to I^orth America. Of the twenty-two species of Cervidae 

 confined to the IS'ew ^'orld, no less than twenty-one belong to Sir 

 Tictor Brooke's division of the Telenietacarpi, C. canadensis being 

 tlie sole exception. This fact alone would point to the latter belonging 



