Mr. J. Hardy on Fossil Antlers of the Roe-buck. 207 



two exterior are considerably larger and flatter, and are more 

 clumsy and curved. The lowermost or smaller is more pointed 

 than the other, commencing suddenly to taper from a sort 

 of elbow 2i inches from the tip. The palm is considerably 

 rent by a crack, and the longest branch wants its tip. The 

 specimen bears only a general resemblance to those given in 

 " Owen's Fossil Mammals," &c., figs. 184 to 186, and that 

 figured in Jameson's edition of Kerr's Translation of " Cuvier's 

 Theory of the Earth." 



The Megaceros shed its antlers periodically like the Deers, 

 and, as with them, these were subject to variations in dimen- 

 sions and form at difierent periods of the animal's growth. 

 It is also considered that the female may have had a peculiar 

 sort of antler, but the evidence of this is not very explicit. 

 Often the antlers of the same pair had been unequally de- 

 veloped ; the one being dwarfed relatively to the other. Pro- 

 fessor Owen has seen one with the right antler having a palm 

 12 inches broad, and the left one 16 inches broad. The pre- 

 sent example is less than any he mentions. One figured cor- 

 responding to the state of the antlers of the Fallow Deer, its 

 nearest modern representative, of the 4th year, was 14 inches 

 across the palm, and belonged to an antler 5 feet in length. 

 The palm of ours is only about 10 inches in width. As it 

 perhaps belonged to a younger individual than any yet put 

 on record, I have been induced to give its measurement in 

 detail. — 



Palm, 

 broken oiF and cut at what I shall call the wrist, being the 

 top of the beam. 



Diameter of section of the wrist .... 2f by 2 inches 



Circumference of the wrist 9^ „ 



Circumference below the branches 12 „ 



Width of the palm measured in front. ... 9 „ 

 Width of do. on the back, being increased ") , ^ 



by a dorsal ridge ) " 



Breadth across the tips of the branches . . 15 „ 

 Length of the longest branch from the ) , . 



wrist to the tip, which is fractured ) '' 



Inner length of this branch 7^^ „ 



Breadth of ditto 2, 1 J, ^ „ 



Circumference of ditto at thickest 5 „ 



Interval between it and the next, 2, 3, and 4 „ 



Length of the second branch 4f and 4^ „ 



Length from the wrist to its tip 10^ „ 



Breadth at base Ij „ 



