52 



Artiodactyla — The Deer-tribe. 



As in many analogous instances, the development of the 

 antlers of the individual is paralleled by their development in 

 the family ; since we find that many of the earlier members 

 were totally unprovided with these appendages, and that their 

 extreme complexity in the more specialised forms was not 

 acquired until a late period in geological time. 



Fig. 62.— Left upper true molar of Cer- 

 vus sivalensis (Lydekker), Pliocene, 

 India. 



Fig. 63. — Left upper true molar of 

 PaUuomeryx sivalensis (Lydekker), 

 Pliocene, India. 



Pier-case, 

 No. 15, and 

 Table-cases, 

 Nos. 9 

 and 10. 



Gig-antic 

 Irish Deer. 



Stands 



K. L. M. and 



Pier-case, 

 No. 15. 



The Deer- tribe (Gervidce) are well represented both by 

 entire skeletons, in the centre of the Gallery, and also by a fine 

 series of detached heads and antlers of various species in and 

 upon the pier-cases, and affixed to the columns on either side of 

 the central avenue. 



In addition to the fallow deer,* the roebuck, and the red deer, 

 which still linger on (preserved in our parks and forests), we once 

 possessed that king of the deer-tribe, the Cervus (Megaceros) 

 giganteus, commonly known as the " Gigantic Irish deer," its 

 remains having been met with in considerable numbers in Ire- 

 land, often in a very remarkable and perfect state of preservation, 

 in the shell-marl beneath the peat -bogs in various parts of the 

 country, particularly in Ballybetagh Bog, near Dublin, and in 

 counties Mayo and Limerick. The gigantic Irish deer was by 

 no means confined to Ireland ; its remains are found in many 

 parts of Great Britain, particularly in cave deposits, and also 

 on the Continent. Two entire skeletons of the male, with 

 antlers spreading a little over 9 feet across,f and one skeleton 

 of the hornless female, stand in the centre of the Gallery (see 



* Cervus dam a is considered to hare been introduced into this country ; but 

 an extinct variety, named by Boyd Dawkins Cervus Broivnii, from the 

 Pleistocene of Essex, may have been its ancestor 



f Heads and antlers of several other individuals are placed upon the 

 adjacent wall-cases. The crowns of some of these are of even greater breadth. 



