THE FOEEST-BED OE EAST ANGLIA. 105 



A most interesting specimen, referred to Cervus dama, has been described by Keilhack ^ 

 from Belzig, 10 miles south-west of Berlin. It would not be easy to find a specimen 

 affording a more complete transition from C. helgrandi to the modern C. dama than 

 this one, and I have accordingly reproduced one of Keilhack's figures of the right antler 

 (woodcut, p. 104). The specimen far exceeds in size all the Fallow-deer measured by 

 Keilhack, the base of the beam being no less than 180 mm. in circumference, as com- 

 pared with 132 mm., the mean of the measurements of the recent individuals given by the 

 same author. It further approaches C. belgrandi'va the scalloped edge of the posterior 

 part of the palmation and in the downward curvature of the large brow-tine, which, 

 however, originates immediately above the burr. Tiie brow-tine appears from the 

 figures to spring from the beam somewhat on its posterior side, as in the Forest-Bed 

 form. The affinity of Keilhack's specimen to C. dama is, however, shown by the angle 

 made by the antlers with the skull, the direction being much less horizontal than in 

 C. belgrandi, and by the inclusion of the back-tine in the palmation, from which it 

 projects in much the same way as in the recent Fallow-deer. The beam terminates in 

 a short but distinct snag at the distal and anterior edge of the crown, but the interval 

 between this and the back-tine has a scalloped edge closely resembling that of the 

 Pakefield specimen. Nehring ^, in remarking on the Belzig specimen, in a paper which 

 preceded Keilhack's memoir, expresses the opinion that it must be regarded, if not as 

 an actual C. dama, at least as a direct ancestor of that species. 



The Belzig specimen indicates in the clearest way the probable derivation of the 

 modern C. dama from forms resembling C. belgrandi, the principal changes which 

 have taken place being apparently the diminution in size, the approximation of the 

 crowns of the two antlers by the assumption of a less horizontal position, the inclusion 

 of the back-tine in the palmation, and the replacement of the serrations of the crown 

 by the snags which characterize the recent Fallow-deer. The discovery of the Belzig 

 specimen and that of the form here described go far towards filling up the gap between 

 C. giganteus and C. dama, to the existence of which attention is called by Riitimeyer % 

 in insisting on the affinity of these two forms. It may be noted that the immature 

 antlers ^ of C. dama have the posterior edge of the crown denticulated in a way strikingly 

 suggestive of G. belgrandi. 



The resemblance of C. belgrandi to C. giganteus is no less striking. Pohlig ^ has 



^ K. Keilhack, " Ueber einen Damliiisch aus dcm deutschen Diluvium," Jahrb. k. Preuss. geolog. Landes- 

 anstalt (1887), 1888, p. 283, pi. si. 



^ " Ueber das fossile Vorkommen von Cervits dama .... in Norddeutschland," SB. Ges. naturf. Berlin, 



1883, p. 69. 



' " Beitrage zu einer natiirlichen Gescbichte der Hirsche," Abhandl. Scbweiz. pal. Gesellsch. x. 1883, p. 111. 



* Of. Cuvier, " Eecherches sur les Ossemens Eossiles," 3rd ed. t. iv. 1825, pi. iii. figs. 28, 29. 



" " Die Cerviden des thiiringischen Diluvial-Travertines, mit Beitragen iiber andere diluviale und iiber reeente 

 Hirschformen," Palaeontographica, xxxix. 1892, p. 215, 



