412 LAND MAMMALS IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE 



branches or "tines" are cylindrical and tapering; but in some 

 cases, as in the Moose {Alee) and the Fallow Deer (Dama), the 

 antler is very broad and flat and is then said to be " palmated." 

 Except in the Reindeer and Caribou (Rangifer) the female is 

 without antlers. 



In the skeleton there is little difference between the deer 

 and the Cavicornia, but there are some differences in the teeth. 

 In the males of those deer which have no antlers, such as the 

 Musk-Deer {Moschus moschiferus) and the Chinese Water- 

 Deer {Hydropotes inermis), as well as in certain forms with very 

 small antlers, like the muntjacs of Asia (Cervulus and Elapho- 

 dus), the upper canine is a long, thin, recurved and sabre-like 

 tusk, a very effective weapon. Speaking of the Indian Munt- 

 jac or "Barking Deer" {Cervulus mtinijac). Flower and Lydek- 

 ker say, "When attacked by dogs the males use their sharp 

 canine teeth with great vigour, inflicting upon their opponents 

 deep and even dangerous wounds." In other forms of deer 

 the upper canines are small or absent. The grinding teeth are 

 brachyodont, but in the existing genera they have higher 

 crowns than in the Tertiary progenitors of the family, and in 

 the Axis and Hog Deer of India {Axis axis and A. porcinus) 

 the molars are quite hypsodont. 



As was shown in Chapter V, the existing deer of North 

 America are of two kinds : (1) the northern, which are plainly 

 of Old World origin and so closely similar to Old World species 

 that many naturaUsts deny the necessity of making distinct 

 species for the American forms. The best known of these 

 are the Wapiti {Cervus canadensis), the Caribou {Rangifer 

 caribou) and the Moose {Alee americanus). (2) The southern 

 deer, of which the common Virginia Deer {Odocoileus virgin- 

 ianus) is a famiUar example, though overlapping in their 

 range that of the northern genera, are peculiar to the Americas, 

 and, though not exactly autochthonous, they must have had 

 a long American ancestry. In the Pleistocene we find the 

 same genera and mostly the same species, their distribution 



