so 



THE INFANCY OF ANIMALS 



HORNS OF FOSSIL DEER. 



A. Dicroseros elegans, Miocene, France. 



B. Cervus pentilici, L. Pliocene, Pikermi. 



C. Cervus perrieri v. Pliocene, Mt. Perrier 



Pay-de-Dome. Alter Smith-Woodward 



In the Upper Miocene 

 and Lower Pliocene we 

 find species with antlers 

 displaying three or four 

 prongs, or " tines," until, 

 in the Upper Pliocene, a 

 complexity was reached 

 equalling that found in 

 some of the finest antlers 

 of existing species. A 

 glance at the accompany- 

 ing illustration should 

 make this clear. 



Among species now 

 living, it may be remarked, 

 some, like the Roe-deer, 

 have not advanced beyond the stage attained during the 

 Miocene period, and between this and the magnificent 

 weapons of the red-deer and wapiti we have a wonderful 

 variety in size, form and complexity. 



One of the most characteristic features of a mammal is 

 its covering of hair ; but in some species this has, in the 

 course of ages, gradually disappeared or become con- 

 siderably reduced in length and quantity, while in others 

 it has become transformed into spines, or replaced by 

 bony plates, and much of what we know as to these 

 changes we owe to the study of young mammals. 



Thus, for example, neither the elephant nor the rhino- 

 ceros are conspicuous for their hairiness, yet when quite 

 young both are emphatically hairy. From this fact we 

 infer that this hairiness is reminiscent of a yet more hairy 

 ancestral condition ; and the inference is justified by an 

 appeal to the past, for we find that during these earher 



