CERVUS DAWKINSI. 



CHAPTER II. 



Genus — Cervus. 



Species — Cervus Bawkinsi, Newton. 

 Cervus Fitchii, Gunn, MS. 

 Cervus Gunnii, Newton. 



§ 1. Introductory. § 3. Measurements. 



§ 2. Definition. § 4. Relation to other Species. 



§ 5. Range in Space and Time. 



§ 1. Introduction. — In the preceding chapter a singular form of the genus Alces has 

 been described, which is probably the ancestor of the Alces machlis. In the present 

 I propose to deal with one of the Deer belonging to the flat-antlered series, which, 

 unfortunately, is as yet only represented by antlers more or less broken. Among the 

 antlers referred to Cervus verticornis in my communication to the Geological Society in 

 1872, 1 was one which Mr. E. T. Newton, in his recent memoir on " The Vertebrates of 

 the Forest-Bed Series," very justly ascribes to another and different species, to which 

 he gives the above name. I am now able to bring the solitary specimen on which his 

 species is based more completely into relation with other remains, and to define the 

 variations presented by the antler at different ages. 



§ 2. Definition. — The antler taken by Mr. E. T. Newton as the type of his species is 

 in the Museum of the Geological Survey in Jermyn Street, and is characterised by the 

 following points (PI. II, fig. 1) : — The bur, a, is very oblique to the main axis of the 

 beam, and the first tine, b, springs directly from the base of the antler, close to the bur. 

 It is oval in section, and is directed forwards and downwards, and is remarkably small 

 in proportion to the size of the beam. The beam above the first tine, b, is rounded on 

 its postero-inner aspect, and traversed by a web on its antero-outer surface which 

 connects tine b with the second tine, c, both tines springing from the beam in the same 

 plane. The second tine, c, is flattened at the base and presents a flattened oval section. 

 Above it the beam is webbed on the antero-outer side, giving off tine e, or the fourth in 

 a plane higher than tine c. This merges into the palmated apex, f, g, which consists of 

 two, or possibly more points. The third tine, d, also flattened oval in section, springs 

 from the postero-inner side of the beam opposite the interspace between tines e and/. 



The basal portion of an antler in the Oxford Museum, obtained by Miss Gurney 



1 ' Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc.,' Loud., vol. xxviii, p. 405. 



