1342 



CLASS MAMMALIA. 



of the Irish Deer. And we may likewise trace an intermediate 

 type in the vertical height of the skull, and the form and connec- 

 tions of the nasal and premaxillary bones. In Capreolus, where the 

 antlers are simple and rounded, the existing Roe (C. caprea, fig. 

 1 212) occurs in the European Pleistocene; while C. cusanus, of the 

 French Pliocene, is regarded as the ancestor of that species ; and 

 the peculiar C. Matheroni, of the Lower Pliocene of both Greece 

 and France, is provisionally referred to the same genus. Cariacus, 

 again, which is peculiar to the New World, and is characterised 



Fig. 



-Skull and antlers of the Elk (Alces 7nachlis.) Reduced. A, Anterior ; 

 B, Posterior branch. (After Scott.) 



either by very simple prong-like antlers, or by a more complex form 

 totally unlike those of any existing European members of the family, 

 is represented by several existing, and perhaps by some extinct, 

 species in the Pleistocene of South America. Lastly, it should be 

 observed that antlered Deer occur in the Tertiaries of North 

 America, and the name Blastomeryx has been applied to one form 

 which is regarded as the ancestor of Cariacus. 



All the preceding existing genera belong to the subfamily Cervtnce, 

 but the Musk-Deer (Moschus), of the Himalaya and regions to the 

 northward, is the type v of a second subfamily — the Moschince. This 



