20 PLEISTOCENE MAMMALIA. 



of Cervus dama that it would be almost impossible to differentiate fragments from which 

 the coronal portion had been broken away. But the resemblance ends at the second 

 tine, c. If the series of antlers of Cervus Browni (PI. IV, figs. 1 — 7) be compared 

 with those of the fallow deer which have been reproduced from Professor Blasius's 1 valuable 

 work, there are these important differences. In the former the fourth tine (fig. 4, e) 

 is developed on the anterior aspect, and the palmation of the antler is distinctly on the 

 anterior aspect. In the latter (PI. IV, fig. 8) the palmation is on the posterior aspect 

 of the antler, which in the old bucks occupies a large portion of the posterior surface of 

 the distal part of the antler. The fourth tine, e, is also normally absent from the latter, 

 although, as is remarked by Sir Victor Brooke, it is present in some few exceptional 

 cases. The three figured by that gentleman 2 are two wild, respectively from Greece and 

 Sardinia, and one from a herd in a park. All three, however, have the normal posterior 

 palmation, such, for example, as PI. IV, fig. 9. These three or four exceptions to the 

 general rule in the vast numbers in public and private collections, may be viewed as 

 interesting cases of reversion to the type of Cervus Browni — to an ancestral type — 

 and as exact parallels to the occasional appearance of a three-toed horse in the domestic 

 breeds. 



§ 5. The Relation of Cervus Browni to C. iSavini and C. dama. — In the preceding 

 chapter it was pointed out that Cervus Savini was closely allied to C. Browni, and that the 

 former is as yet only found in the early Pleistocene Forest-bed series of Norfolk and 

 Suffolk. The latter is only known in the freshwater deposit of the Clacton shore, 

 where it formed part of a Fauna of Mid-Pleistocene age. 3 Here it was associated with 

 the following animals : 



Equus caballus. 



Rhinoceros leptorhinus of Owen. 



(Rhinoceros hemitoechus of Falconer.) 



Elephas 



Felis spelaa. 



Bison or Urus. 



Cervus elaphus. 



Cervus megaceros. 



This group of animals in the absence of Pleiocene species, and more particularly of 

 the peculiar types of deer described in this Monograph from the Forest Bed, belongs 

 to a later period than the Forest bed. It is therefore clear that the Cervus Browni is 

 later in point of time than the closely related form, Cervus Savini, described in the 

 preceding chapter. The evidence is equally clear that it was succeeded in time by the 

 existing species or variety, Cervus dama, which is of Pleistocene age on the Continent, 

 but unknown in Britain until it was introduced by the Romans. 4 The three forms 

 therefore stand to each other in the following relation in time : 



1 ' Fauna der Saugethiere Deutschlauds,' vol. i, fig. 237. Braunschweig, 1857. 



2 'Nature,' xi, p. 210, Jan. 14. 



3 Dawkins, ' Quart Journ. Geol. Soc.,' Lond., Aug., 1880, p. 397 ; " Early Man in Britain," p. 134. 



1 On this point, seethe correspondence in ' Nature,' vol. xi, between Dr. Sclater (December 10th, 

 1874), myself (p. 71), and Sir Victor Brooke (p. 210). 



