748 A general Review of the Species of [No. 117. 



general character being intermediate to that of the Wapiti and of the 

 European Stag, but agreeing more nearly with the latter in its kind of 

 granulated surface. Respecting the great Siberian species, we are 

 informed by Pennant, (in his Arctic Zoology, p. 31,) probably on the 

 authority of a private communication from his correspondent, Professor 

 Pallas, that, " Stags are totally extirpated in Russia, but abound in 

 the mountainous southern tract of Siberia, where they grow to a size 

 far superior to what is known in Europe, The height of a grown hind 

 is four feet nine inches and a half, its length eight feet, and that 

 of its head one foot eight inches and a half," which is proportionate to 

 Mr. Hodgson's admeasurements of the skull of the male,* and scarcely, 

 if at all, inferior to the American Wapiti. I cannot bring myself to 

 think that an Elk {Alces Ccesaris) is here alluded to ; but may mention 

 that a fully grown female Elk, which I measured alive in the Zoological 

 Gardens, gave eight feet and a quarter from muzzle to base of tail, 

 and stood five feet two inches high at the back ; the apparent eleva- 

 tion of its withers consisting of hair only. Its head, measuring over the 

 drooping upper lip to the rudimental naked muzzle, gave twenty- six 

 inches and a half. 



The ordinary fossil Stag of Europe, currently identified with C 

 Elaphus^ is generally about one-fourth larger in all the dimensions of 

 its antlers than the common existing species of the same region, as 

 remarked to me, of the fossil specimens found in Switzerland, by my 

 friend Professor Schinz, of Zurich ; and this I have equally found to be 

 the case in numerous examples obtained from the gravel and peat o^ 

 various districts in the British Islands. It would even appear that a 

 remnant of this larger race still survives in Hungary, or was in 

 existence not many years ago. Of such an animal, it is stated, in a 

 German sporting work, 'Wildungen's Wiedmann's Feierabende, (p. 91,) 

 that the author " has to thank Count Erbach-Erbach for the antlers here- 

 with carefully figured, (and one of which is copied in the Plate, fig. 11), 

 which prove that the Giant Stag is not yet totally extirpated in Europe. 

 The animal which bore them was shot by a Wallachian, in the year 

 1815, on the Imperial Lordship Rewantz, on the Buckowina, and the 

 Count received the antlers from a friend who superintends the imperial 



* Vide p. 722, ante. 



