CERVUS BROWN T. 17 



CHAPTER IV. 

 PI. IV. 



Cervus Broioni, Dawkins. 

 Cervus clactonianus, Falconer. 



§ I. Introduction. § 3. Measurements. 



§ 2. Description of Antlers. § 4. Comparison with Cervus dama. 



§ .5. The Bel at ion of Cervus Browni to C. Savini and C. dama. 



$ 1. Introduction. — In the collection of fossil mammals found in the freshwater 

 deposits of Clacton by Mr. John Brown, of Stanway, and now in the British Museum, is 

 a series of antlers, forty-one in number, which Mr. Davies could refer to none of the 

 fossil species of the genus Cervus. A careful examination convinced me of the truth of 

 his conclusion, and that they indicate a species of deer hitherto unknown, not only in 

 Britain but also on the Continent. For it I proposed in 18 08 the name Cervus Browni in 

 memory of its discoverer, 1 to whose indefatigable labour in collecting fossils we owe very 

 much of our knowledge of the Pleistocene Mammalia. Dr. Falconer, whose attention 

 was directed by Mr. Davies to some of these antlers, considered them to belong to a species 

 allied to, but distinct from, the Axis of the Crag and Forest Bed, 2 being unaware at the 

 time that the nearly perfect antler, PI. IV, fig. 3 (which shows that the Clacton deer 

 had no affinities with any round-antlered deer), belonged to the series of fragments which 

 he inscribed in his note-book as those of Cervus clactonianus, and considering that the 

 antler in question, which is taken as the type of the species, belonged really to Cervus 

 dama* I therefore felt justified in designating the species after its discoverer, instead of 

 adopting Dr. Falconer's manuscript name, which he never attempted to define. 



Evidence derived from antlers is, in the main, to be looked upon with suspicion, 

 because of the great variation in form that they present at different ages. In this case, 



1 'Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. Lond.,' 1868, p. 511. 



2 ' Palseontological Memoirs,' vol. ii, p. 478. In Brown's Clacton collection in the British Museum 

 is a very extensive series of Deer-horns nearly all belonging to one species. They are all terete, with a 

 single brow-antler given off very low, as in the Val d'Arno Axis, but a little lower and pointing more 

 forwards above tbe brow-antler. There is generally a long reach of beam with no branch. How the beam 

 terminates is not shown. In size it is like Mr. King's Axis from the Crag and Forest Bed, but it differs in 

 the brow-antler being given off lower, and in not having the same pronounced double curve. The species 

 is evidently distinct (Cervus clactonianus). 



3 Op. cir., vol. ii, p. 480. specimen No. 27,876, quoted as " British Museum specimen of Cervus 



