512 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [June 17, 



antler, Plate XVII. fig. 4 (wMch 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 

 Clact07iianus, and considering that the antler in question, which is 

 taken as the type of the species, belonged really to Cervus dama *. 

 I have therefore felt justified in designating the species after its 

 discoverer, whose name has been as yet ignored in terminology, in- 

 stead 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 pre- 

 sent at difi'erent ages. In this case, however, the large number 

 shows that the type w^as persistent in a group consisting of forty- 

 one animals, no two of the antlers having belonged to the same 

 individual. Those of the right side are twenty-four in number ; 

 and out of the whole, fourteen have been forcibly torn from the 

 skuU, twenty-five have been shed, and two are mere fragments of 

 tynes. Out of them I have chosen a series (PL XYII. figs. 1-7, 

 PI. XVIII. figs. 1, 2) to illustrate the characters of the species. 



2. DescriiJtion.—The antlers (PI. XVII. figs. 1-7, PI. XVIII. 

 figs. 1, 2) are nearly smooth, being traversed merely by broad and shal- 

 low depressions for the reception of the nutrient blood-vessels of the 

 velvet. They are set on the skull obliquely to the axis of the beam, as in 

 the Eed-deer, Pallow- deer, and Irish Elk. The pedicle (Eosenstocke) 

 (PI. XVIII. figs. 1, 2) is round and short, varying in length from 

 0-8 to I'l inch. The buiT, or rose of the Germans, is uncertainly 

 developed, being large and sharply defined in some (PI. XVII. fig. 4, 

 PI. XVIII. figs. 1, 2), and but rudimentary in others. It presents a 

 rounded oatline. Immediately above it, the brow-tyne, h, is given 

 off, nearly at right angles to the axis of the beam ; the angle, how- 

 ever, varies slightly in difi'erent individuals (PI. XVII. figs. 1, 4, 5 ; 

 PI. XVIII. fig. 1). It is cylindrical in section, with a direction some- 

 what downward basally, and upward as it tapers to its extreme end. It 

 is sometimes straight. After giving ofi'the brow-antler the rounded 

 beam bends downwards, as far as the palmation (Tc), which marks the 

 base of the second or bez-antler (PI. XVII. fig. 4^ Pl.XVIII. fig.l, c), 

 and is also slightly curved forwards. Two antlers present a remark- 

 able variation from the ordinary type : in the one a rudimentary 

 antler springs out of the base of the brow-tyne, h ; in the other (PL 

 XVII. fig. 5), an accessory brow-tyne, 6', is thrown off from the beam 

 at a distance of 1-75 inch above the normal brow-tyne (6). This 

 variation is also found in an antler of a Eallow-deer in the College of 

 Surgeons. In an antler of Cervus elaphus, also in the same collection, 

 there are three brow-tynes. The second tyne (PL XVII. fig. 4, 

 PL XVIII. fig. 1, c) is shaped somewhat like the first; but it springs 

 from a palmated base, and is slightly compressed horizontally, so that 

 the section presented is oval. The variations in direction noticed in the 



* Op. cit. vol. ii. p. 480. Specimen No. 27876, quoted as "■British Museum 

 Specime?i of C. dama." 



