406 PALAEONTOLOGY. 



a large extinct species of fallow-deer ; the name Cervus Somo- 

 nensis has since been attached to this species. About the 

 same period was represented by a gigantic species, a group 

 (Megaceros, fig. 157) characterized by a form of antler at pre- 

 sent unknown amongst existing species of deer. With a beam 

 (6) expanding and branching towards the summit, as in Dama, 

 and with a brow-tyne (p), this antler shews also a back-tyne 

 (bz). Moreover, in antlers, with an expanse of ten feet in a 

 straight line from tip to tip, and which, from their size and 

 form, seem to have been developed by the deer at its prime, 

 the brow-tyne expands and sometimes bifurcates — a variety 

 never seen in the fallow-deer, but which becomes exaggerated 

 in the rein-deer group. The Megaceros Hibemicus (fig. 157), 

 is not only remarkable for its great size, but for the great 

 relative magnitude and noble form of its antlers ; it is the 

 species commonly called the " Irish elk ; " but it is a true 

 deer, intermediate between the fallow and rein-deer ; and 

 though most abundant in, it is not peculiar to, Ireland. In 

 that country it occurs in the shell -marl underlying the 

 extensive turbaries. In England its remains have been 

 found in lacustrine beds, brick-earth, red crag, and ossiferous 

 caves.* 



The rein-deer {Cervus Tarandus) has the largest propor- 

 tional antlers (fig. 158) of any existing species. The beam is 

 somewhat flattened throughout, but expands only and sud- 

 denly at its extremity, a similar expansion characterizing the 

 brow-tyne (br) and mid-tyne (bz), two, three, or more points 

 being developed from all these expansions in fully-developed 

 antlers. The brow-tyne is remarkable for its length. There 

 is also frequently a short back-tyne. This branch, therefore, 

 with the great relative size of the antlers, the complex brow- 

 tyne, and the terminal expansion of the beam, shew the affinity 

 of the rein-deer to the extinct Megaceros. 



* Owen, History of British Fossil Mammals, p. 444. 



