THE FALLOW DEER. 59 



THE FALLOW DEEK. 



Cervus dama. 



It is still not very clear when the Fallow Deer became an inhabitant of Britain 

 and what claim it has for inclusion in the British Pleistocene fauna. 



Several authors have cited it as occurring in the Forest Bed, but as Newton 1 

 remarks, the determination is based on fragments which might equally well belong 

 to other species. 



It is not the purpose of this memoir to discuss critically the Forest Bed Cervidee, 

 which have been described in Sir W. Boyd Dawkins's memoir. 2 It is, however, clear 

 that dama-]ike deer, such as Cervus savini, are found in the Forest Bed. Whether or 

 not any of these forms are to be regarded as actual varieties of Cervus dama is not, 

 perhaps, a matter of much importance. The balance of opinion is probably against 

 the inclusion of Cervus dama proper as a member of the Forest Bed fauna. 



The antlers from the Middle Pleistocene of Clacton, Essex, described by Dawkins 

 as Cervus browni were separated by him from C. dama owing to the possession of a 

 tine on the anterior face of the antler above the 2nd tine. 3 Sir V. Brooke 4 pointed 

 out that this tine is occasionally present in Fallow Deer, and figured examples from 

 Greece and Sardinia which show it. He also mentioned a case in which one of his own 

 Fallow Deer produced antlers bearing this tine. Hence he argued that C. dama and 

 C. browni were identical, and that under the latter designation the early occurrence of 

 the Fallow Deer in England has been to some extent obscured. Dawkins at first 

 accepted Brooke's 5 contention, but afterwards considered 6 that the occasional presence 

 of this additional tine in C. dama had best be regarded as due to reversion, and that 

 a separate species or variety intermediate between C. savini and C. dama may be 

 recognized in C. browni. Millais 7 was also of the opinion that C. browni is a Fallow 

 Deer. 



1 ' Geol. Mag.,' 1880, p. 452. 



2 Pal. Soc, " The Pleistocene Mammalia," pt. vi (1887). 



3 Ibid., pi. iv, fig. 3e. 



4 ' Nature,' xi, pp. 210—11. 



5 Ibid., p. 226. 



6 Pal. Soc, "The Pleistocene Mammalia," pt. vi (1887), p. 17. 



7 ' Mammals of Great Britain and Ireland ' (1906), p. 371. 



