484 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, 



to a distinct and much more recent immigration into America. 

 ■which. Yie^v is supported by its range in that continent, it being 

 confined to the Northern States. 



The centre of distribution of the whole Cervus elcqjltus group lies in 

 Central Asia, a fact which had beenbefore noticedby Koppen (53, p. 51), 

 who believed that the more accurate position of this centre was some- 

 where between the Altai and the Tian-Shan ^Mountains, just as we have 

 had two migrations from Asia of the bullfijich, so we have had the same 

 number of the red deer. The older one of the small-autlered race 

 passed into Greece and spread along the borders of the Mediterranean, 

 at the time when Corsica and Sardinia were still connected with 

 Sicily and Greece on the one hand, and with Tunis on the other. 

 Arrived in Spaiu, this small race probably spread north and east. 

 But it is only in the isolated regions, such as Irekind, that this 

 race has been still preserved, for owing to the advent of the large- 

 antlered form in Central Europe during the Interglacial Period, 

 which probably interbred with the older one, we have there a race 

 somewhat intermediate between the two. 



I may mention that we have fossil evidence of the great antic[uity 

 in Europe of the small race of the red deer. It was found associated 

 in Malta with the pigmy hippopotamus, and an extinct elephant 

 (18), and has been obtained in caves at Gibraltar (57 r/), in Spain {\c), 

 and Ireland (2). All the animals of the southern migration, which I 

 have referred to in the preceding pages, formed part of an exceedingly 

 ancient stream which issued forth from South-western Europe. As I 

 indicated, they did not all originate there, but the natives of that 

 region were joined by those of Central and Southern Asia, which had 

 wandered to South-western Europe, across ancient land-connexions, 

 by way of Greece, Sicily, and Xorth-west Africa. Tliat the fauna of 

 !North-west Afiica had come from Europe, and that the latter was not 

 stocked from Africa, has already been maintained by the great palae- 

 ontologist Riitimeyer (74, p. 42), and by Bourguignat (11). 



Owing to the breaking up of old land-connexions across the Medi- 

 terranean, and to the disappearance of barriers in other places, the 

 Asiatic stream of the southern migration entered Central Europe by a 

 more direct route than before, and was now joined by animals of 

 Central European origin in its northern course. The south-western 

 animals and plants ceased to migrate north, possibly owing to a 

 refrigeration by slow degrees of the climate, and at the present 

 moment many of the members of that early migration, which reached 

 Ireland, have become extinct ; most of the survivors, still holding 



