3i6 BRITISH MAMMALS 



absolutely no trace of the bez, or second tine, on the horns,^ and 

 that the brow tine tends to be very short and to assume palma- 

 tion, while alone amongst the deer it forks into one or more 

 prongs (though, of course, there are some examples in which 

 it is simple). In fact, the brow tine of this deer resembles that of 

 the reindeer. Occasionally the brow tine is not only divided, but is 

 much bent down over the face. Sometimes, instead of branching 

 out into a " palm," it merely forks into two short prongs. In 

 Mr. Rowland Ward's book on big game measurements, 

 1 1 ft. 6 in. and 1 1 ft. 3 in. are given as the greatest recorded 

 measurements of the horns of the gigantic Irish deer from tip to 

 tip. The length along the inside curve of one of the antlers, 

 which measured 11 ft. 3 in. from tip to tip, was 7 ft. 5^ in., and 

 the measurement across the greatest width of palmation was 

 19J in. This antler contained seventeen points. The greatest 

 recorded width of palmation is 25 in. The greatest recorded 

 number of points in a megaceros antler is twenty-eight, and 

 apparently the greatest length measured along the inside curve 

 that has been recorded is as above stated, 7 ft. 5J in. Mr. 

 Millais mentions a head which measured 11 ft. 3 in. in span 

 from tip to tip, but his own measurements of some of the finest 

 heads in the world, which are exceptionally careful, give no 

 greater spread than 9 ft. 5 in. 



The females of the gigantic fallow deer were hornless. The 

 vertebrae of the neck, in the male especially, were greatly 

 enlarged and strengthened to bear this splendid burden. There 

 were no canine teeth developed in the upper jaw. The tail 

 was slightly longer than it is in existing fallow deer. We can 

 only now make inferential guesses at its hair and colour. It is 

 improbable that it became hairless in our cold climate ; it may 

 even have become shaggy. Unlike the pigs and bovines, the 

 deer show no tendency towards loss of hair. The magnificent 

 megaceros may have added to its splendour of antlers by a heavy- 

 throat mane. It may also have retained the white spots and the 

 red-gray colouring of the fallow deer ; but, judging by analogy, 



1 A fallow deer feature. 



