ii FIELD AND FOREST. 



Cervidse in 1872, in my "Arrangement of the families of Mammals," 

 but, being sceptical of its truth to nature, I especially indicated (by the 

 words " Genera fide Sc later'"} that I did so entirely on his authority. 

 I must fegret this as subsequent investigation has convinced me that it 

 is the most inapt and tinscientific arrangement that has ever been pro* 

 posed for the Cervinae. I shall only add in explanation that 1 knew 

 that Mr. Sclater was acquainted with the principal systematic attempts 

 of previous authors, and supposed that he had duly weighed the 

 values of the several differential characters, and had based his conclu- 

 sions on Valid considerations. Although I then recognized the compara- 

 tive unimportance of the characters nominally employed by him to 

 differentiate " CervUs 1 ' and " Dama," even because I did so, and 

 their relative unimportance seemed so evident at first sight, I was in- 

 duced to believe that Mr. Sclater's conclusions had been based on the 

 examination of skeletons or other characters respecting which he pre- 

 ferred to be reticent until he could elaborate them more fully. The 

 distinctions used were presumably external co-ordinates of previously 

 unknown characters and simply employed as technical diagnostic 

 marks. I was led to this belief by his statement that he mentioned 

 for the genera " only their most obvious external characters." I am 

 now forced to believe, however, after a careful examination of the 

 characters of Cervus and Dama, that there are no other characters 

 which can justify Mr. Sclater's classification and that it is utterly des- 

 titute of a scientific basis. In this opinion I am practically sustained 

 by the conclusions of such capable observers and reasoners as Sir Vin- 

 cet Brooke and Prof. Garrod. The latter has very justly remarked 

 that "Dama vulgaris as well as Dama mesopotamica, from the shape 

 of their antlers — -neglecting the palmation, an evidently insignificant 

 character [but which Mr. Sclater considers all important] — are inti- 

 mately allied to the pseudaxine group." The antlers in two exam- 

 ples of Cervus canadensis in the Smithsonian Museum are actually 

 palmate d at their extremities, (but in both cases on one side only,*) 

 and the two sides would certainly not be placed (at least when to- 

 gether) even by Mr. Sclater, in different genera. 



Theodore Gill. 



* " Cornua pabnata" is the only character used by Mr. Sclater to isolate Cervus 

 Dama in a " genus " from the negative medley {Cornua non palmata) designated by 

 him as the "genus Cervus" 



/ 



