100 DE. S, P. HARMEE ON CEEVUS BELGEANDI PEOM 



pedicles is wide (3 inches) and the pedicles are much more horizontally placed than 

 in C. dama, to which the species appears to be related ; they pass with an even curve 

 into the top of the frontal, whereas in another specimen of C. helgrandi in the Cam- 

 bridge collection they make a distinct angle with the frontal and are somewhat more 

 vertical. The pedicles are nearly cylindrical above, but have a sharp ridge descending 

 from their outer borders to the posterior margin of the orbit ; their bases are deeply 

 hollowed out behind, as in other species of Cervus. Below the pedicles, the skull has 

 a median ridge, with a marked depression on either side of it, thus differing from a 

 part of a skull described by Boyd Dawkins ^. The posterior part of the parietals 

 (apparently just in front of the suture with the occipital) has a round foramen nearly 

 in the middle line, and a smaller one slightly to the left side of it and rather further 

 forwards (the other side being here injured). I have found a similar vacuity in the 

 roof of the skull in another Forest-Bed specimen which I refer to C. savini Dawk. 

 The transverse occipital crest is strongly marked, in correlation with the great size of 

 the antlers, and the occipital surface is nearly vertical. Ventrally there is a very deep 

 emargination between the condyles. There was apparently a large supra-orbital 

 foramen, but the skull is deficient in this region. 



The specimens of the Irish Deer (C, giganteus) in the Cambridge collection differ 

 from the above in having much shorter and less marked pedicles, in the comparatively 

 slight median ridge on the frontals and their more depressed character in this region, 

 and in the smaller size of the supra-orbital foramen. The vertex of the skull, between 

 the two pedicles, is less raised in C. belgrandi, the roof of the skull of which is practi- 

 cally flat from the front of the occipital crest to a point between the two pedicles. In 

 the Irish Deer, on the contrary, the skull between the pedicles is much higher than 

 the most prominent part of the occipital crest, from which it is separated by a distinct 

 concavity. A striking difference, which appears to me of some importance, is that 

 whereas in C. giganteus the vascular grooves on the beam of the antlers have a markedly 

 spiral course, those of C. helgrandi run quite straight up the beams. The race of 

 C. giganteus found in the Barrington Eiver-gravel agrees with the Irish Deer in this 

 respect. 



The occurrence of the atlas and axis vertebrae associated with the skull is of special 

 interest. Their size is not far short of that of the corresponding vertebrae in an 

 articulated specimen of the Irish Deer in the Woodwardian Museum at Cambridge, 

 the spread of whose antlers is 8 feet 4 inches. This is brought out in the tables of 

 measurements which follow. I have noted the following differences between the two 

 forms, although some of them may be no more than individual peculiarities. 



In the Atlas: — The neural arch is flatter above in C. giganteus, while it rises 

 externally more abruptly on the dorsal surface in C. belgrandi. The tip of the 



1 Pal. Soc, t. cit. p. 28. 



