3IO BRITISH MAMMALS 



is almost unobservable, and I give a drawing of one of the horns 

 of this deer (together with illustrations of the other types) to 

 illustrate this important point; for there is no doubt that no 

 undue stress should be laid on palmation in the classification of 

 this group. The Fallow Deer sub-genus, however, does differ 

 somewhat markedly from the Elaphine and Sikine deer, in that 

 its antlers are usually lacking in the bez, or second tine.^ But 

 this does occasionally make its appearance in a short knob, or 

 prong, close to the brow tine. In the Persian fallow deer the 

 brow tine is often reduced to a mere knob. 



For the origin of the fallow deer we must hark back to 

 Asia, as we have to do with more than two-thirds of the 

 British Mammalia. It is evidently allied in origin to the Sika 

 group. At the present day one species of fallow deer is found 

 in Western Persia, while a large fallow deer, which is sometimes 

 nearly the size of the red deer, but is apparently identical with 

 Cervus dama, still lingers on the west coast of Asia Minor. 

 Fallow deer of much the same type are found at the present 

 day in a wild state in Northern Palestine, in the island of Rhodes, 

 in Greece, Sardinia, Spain, and Portugal. The fallow deer in 

 Italy are said to be introduced. The fallow deer in the south 

 of Sweden are of that insipid dark brown variety which is also 

 met with in England. These, too, are said not to be indigenous. 

 Lastly, the fallow deer, spotted and unspotted (the spotted 

 form bearing a remarkable resemblance, except in size, to the 

 fallow deer of Asia Minor) is found in England and Scotland. 

 As to whether existing fallow deer in Great Britain are 

 descended direct and uninterruptedly from the wild fallow deer 

 which we know inhabited these islands in Prehistoric times, is 

 still a matter of dispute. The fallow deer of Scotland and of 

 the New Forest bear many signs of being wild animals, and not 

 the descendants of tame ones. On the other hand, it is asserted 



^ The tines, or branches, of the Cervine antlers are known by the following 

 names : The first is the brow tine, the second the " bez " (pronounced " bay "), 

 the third the " trez " (" tray "), and the remaining tines in the terminal group 

 the "cup." 



