378 Note on tlie Haces of Bein Deer. [No. 4 ? 



tain Eein Deer, which for the greater part of the year are herded on 

 such elevated regions as to be destitute, or nearly so, of arbórea* 

 vegetation ; and the Scogs Ren, or forest Eein Deer, that all tbe year 

 are pastured in the forest s. The Skogs Ken is the larger of the two ; 

 but even he is mnch inferior in size and nobility of appearance to the 

 wild Eein Deer. The latter is occasionally killed, weighing about 

 350 Tbs. ; whereas the tame Eein Deer, according to Swedish natur- 

 alists, never attain to more than 200 flbs.* The wild Eein Deer is 

 of a mnch lighter and more handsome colonr than the tame. His 

 coat — in the winter at least— is immensely thick." (Lloyd's ' Scan- 

 dinavian Adventnres,' II, 190, 192, 198, 206.) 



Another writer describes the wild Eein Deer of Scandinavia as 

 " thinner, with more appearance of bone, and considerably stronger,'' 

 than the tame ; in fact, a more ' game'-looking animal, as is usually 

 the case with species in a state of natnre. 



The object of these citations is to shew that the fossil Eein Deer 

 of the British Islands may well be identical with the existing wild 

 animal of Scandinavia, as distinguished from the tame kind, rather 

 than of a race pecnliar to the barren -gronnds of arctic America (as 

 has been snggested), which, however, I suspect to be one and the 

 same particular race ;t whereas the Mnsk Ox, likewise met with fossil 

 in Britain, is actnally now confined to the American ' barren-gronnds ;' 

 where, also, npon the western continent, the European Bear is exclu- 

 sively observed. 



" Nilssori," continúes Mr. Lloyd, " has a curious speculation respect- 

 ing the Eein Deer. He imagines that those once inhabiting Scania 

 carne from the southward immediately after the boulder-formation, 



* The main reason, I suspect, of the inferior size of the tame Eein Deer, as 

 compared with the wild, is that the young are deprived of their necessary supply 

 of milk. Vide end of note to p. 285, antea. 



f Since the above and the note to p. 283 were written, I have seen the abstract 

 of Dr. H. Falconer's paper ' On the Ossiferous Caves of Gower, in Grlamorganshire, 

 South Wales,' published in the Ánn. Mag. N. H. for October, 1860, p. 297 et seq. 

 The fossil Deer referred to in p. 283 (antea) are there referred to " species or 

 varieties allied to the Eein Deer (Cervus Guettardi and C. priscus)." Prof. 

 Owen's figure of what he assigns to C. taeandus in his Palceontology, p. 374 

 is merely a copy of a restored figure of a British fossil figured in his British 

 Fossil Mammals and Birds, p. 479, and is therefore not authoritative. 



