CERVUS SAVINI. 11 



CHAPTER III. 



PI. Ill, figs. 2—5. 



Cervus Savini, Dawkins. 



§ 1. Introductory. i §3. Measurements of Antlers. 



§ 2. Definition of Antlers. § 4. The Skull. 



§ 5. The Relation of Cervus Savini to other species of Deer. 



& 1. Introductory. — In most of the principal museums of this country which possess 

 fossils from the Forest Bed, basal fragments of antlers are to be seen which have 

 hitherto been unnamed and unclassified. They are characterised by the brow-tine 

 springing from the cylindrical beam close to the bur at right or obtuse angles, and the 

 second tine also springing from the beam at right angles, and at a distance of from six 

 to eleven inches from the bur. After searching in vain for many years for a clue to the 

 definition of the perfect antler to which these fragments belong, I am now able to restore 

 the perfect antler and to define the species. The specimens which have allowed me to 

 do this have been discovered at East Runton, Sidestrand, Overstrand, and Trimingham, 

 by Mr. A. C. Savin, of Cromer, to whom my best thanks are due for his placing his 

 collection at my disposal, and after whom I have named the species. 



§ 2. Definition of Antlers. — The antler which I have chosen as the type of the 

 species (PI. Ill, fig. 3) was obtained at Trimingham, and measures 25 -J- inches in 

 length, with the tines broken off, but yet showing sufficient evidence of the form of the 

 crown. It possesses the following characters : — The base is rounded oval, and the bur, 

 a, is very stout and oblique to the axis of the basal portion of the beam ; the brow-tine, 

 6, springs from it at an obtuse angle of from 120° to 137° to the beam in most of the 

 specimens which I have examined. This appears to be its normal relation to the main 

 axis of the basal portion of the beam. Sometimes, however, as in a specimen in the 

 British Museum from the Forest Bed at Happisburgh, No. 33,471, it is at right angles 

 to the beam, and this character is repeated in a specimen from East Runton in the 

 Museum of the Geological Survey. The brow-tine is oval at the base, but, as may be 

 seen in PI. Ill, fig. 2, 5, which represents a young antler from the Weybourn beds of 

 East Runton, it rapidly becomes cylindrical and sweeps forwards. The antler-base is 



