378 Note on the Races of Rein Deer. [No. 4 



tain Eein Deer, which for the greater part of the year are herded on 

 snch elevated regions as to he destitute, or nearly so, of arborea^ 

 vegetation ; and the Scogs Ren, or forest Eein Deer, that all the year 

 are pastured in the forests. The Skogs Een is the larger of the two • 

 hut even he is much inferior in size and nobility of appearance to the 

 wild Eein Deer. The latter is occasionally killed, weigh inp- about 

 350 lbs. ; whereas the tame Eein Deer, according to Swedish natur- 

 alists, never attain to more than 200 lbs.* The wild Eein Deer is 

 of a much lighter and more handsome colour than the tame. His 

 coat — in the winter at least — is immensely thick." (Lloyd's ' Scan- 

 dinavian Adventures,' II, 190, 192, 198, 206.) 



Another writer describes the wild Eein Deer of Scandinavia as 

 " thinner, with more appearance of bone, and considerably stronger,'' 

 than the tame ; in fact, a more ' game'-looking animal, as is usually 

 the case with species in a state of nature. 



The object of these citations is to shew that the fossil Eein Deer 

 of the British Islands may well be identical with the existing wild 

 animal of Scandinavia, as distinguished from the tame kind, rather 

 than of a race peculiar to the barren -grounds of arctic America (as 

 has been suggested), which, however, I suspect to be one and the 

 same particular race ;f whereas the Musk Ox, likewise met with fossil 

 in Britain, is actually now confined to the American ' barren-grounds ;' 

 where, also, upon the western continent, the European Bear is exclu- 

 sively observed. 



" Nilsson," continues Mr. Lloyd, " has a curious speculation respect- 

 ing the Eein Deer. He imagines that those once inhabiting Scania 

 came from the southward immediately after the boulder-formation, 



* The main reason, I suspect, of the inferior size of the tame Eein Deer, as 

 compared with the wild, is that the young are deprived of their necessary supply 

 of milk. Vide end of note to p. 285, antea. 



t Since the above and the note to p. 283 were written, I have seen the abstract 

 of Dr. H. Falconer's paper ' On the Ossiferous Caves of Grower, in Glamorganshire^ 

 South Wales,' published in the Ann. Mag. N. H. for October, 1860, p. 297 et seq. 

 The fossil Deer referred to in p. 283 (antea) are there referred to " species or 

 varieties allied to the Rein Deer (Cervus Guettardi and C. prisons)." Prof. 

 Owen's figm'e of what he assigns to C. tauandus in his Palaeontology, p. 374 

 is merely a copy of a restored figure of a British fossil figured in his British 

 Fossil Mammals and Birds, p. 4«79, and is therefore not authoritative. 



