256 



brow-antler and bezantler. The Reindeer {Rangifer) makes the nearest 

 approach to the Megaceros in the large development of the antlers, but 

 the extinct species far surpasses all known Cervid& in the enormous pro- 

 . portions of the antlers as compared with the skull. In the occasional 

 bifurcation of the expanded end of the brow-antler it again approximates 

 the characters of the Reindeer (Rangifer), but does not push its affinity 

 to this genus so far as to have antlers developed in both sexes, as Cuvier 

 suspected. Col. Hamilton Smith, the founder of the subgen'eric divi- 

 sions of the Linnsean Cefvus, has referred the gigantic Deer ot Ireland 

 to the section Dama, or the Fallow Deer*; but the peculiar propor- 

 tions and modifications of the antlers of the extinct species in question 

 afford as good grounds for a special subgenus for its reception, as those 

 on which the subgenus Dama itself has been proposed. 



The forms and proportions of the cranium, and especially of the bones, 

 and especially those of the nose and of the upper and lower jaws, closely 

 agree with the type of the Fallow and Reindeer. 



From a freshwater Pleistocene deposit of shell marl beneath a bog 

 near the town of Limerick. Purchased. 



1121. The skull and antlers of the gigantic Deer (Megaceros Hibernicus). The 

 antlers measure across in a straight line, between the extreme tips, eight 

 feet four inches ; each antler, from the burr to the extreme tip following 

 the curve of the middle, measures five feet nine inches. The breadth of 

 the expanded extremity of the broadest brow-antler is four inches four 

 lines. The number of snags or branches of the beam is seven, one bein^ 

 continued from the hind margin about one-third of the way from the 

 base. The breadth of the occiput is seven inches. 



From the Pleistocene freshwater marl beneath a bog in the county of 

 Limerick. Purchased. 



1122. The skull and mutilated antlers of the gigantic Deer {Megaceros Hiber- 



nicus). The brow-antlers in this specimen present a rhomboidal form, 

 slightly concave above, and measures six inches and a half across their 



* Griffith's Translation of Cuvier, vol. iv. p. 87, vol. v. p. 306. 



