THE GIANT DEER. 



17 



The Italian race Cervus (Euryceros) italics of Pohlig (Text-fig. 12, a) does not differ 

 very markedly from the German race. Lydekker (101) states its characters in the 

 following terms : " Relatively small, and antlers comparatively simple ; palmation 

 narrow, much inclined upwards so that much of the outer surface is seen in front 

 view ; all the tines small, and those above the bez (i. e. second tine of the nomen- 

 clature adopted here) few in number and placed near the summit of palmation." 



In the Forest Bed and in the Pleistocene of Clacton, Essex, are found the antlers 

 of other deer connecting the Fallow Deer and the Giant Deer. Thus, C. browni, 

 Dawkins, from Clacton, is clearly an ancestral Fallow Deer. C. belgrandi, originally 

 described by Lartet and now well known from the splendid antlers described by 

 Harmer (106) from the Forest Bed of Pakefield (Text-fig. 12, c), is a much larger and 

 more specialized form, occupying, as its describer claims, a central position between 



(left) 



Fig. 4. — Young antlers from " Ireland " seen from above (Brit. Mus. Nat. Hist.). In this remarkable pair of young 

 antlers the brow tine (c) is terminated by two points in the right antler, and by three in the left. There is no 2nd 

 tine, but the back tine (e) is well developed ; the palm is narrow and tapers rapidly. Only two tines in the right 

 antler and three in the left spring from its anterior part, which ends with one point in the right antler and two in the 

 left. The length of the pedicel is an indication of the youth of the animal. The left antler is not unlike that of the 

 variety ruffi of Nehring. 



C. browni and dama on the one hand and C. giganteus on the other. It differs from 

 dama and most early forms in the relatively horizontal position of the beam, which is 

 very long, sharply bent forwards and expanded suddenly into a very broad palm, the 

 edge of which is marked by many slight irregularities, but bears no definite tines. 



Another type of antler is that from the sands of Mosbach near Biebrich on the 

 Rhine, described by Soergel (130) (Text-fig. 12, d) as C. (Megaceros) mosbachensis. 

 The beam is short and stout and is continued into a palm which, to judge by the 

 figures, suggests a resemblance to that of C. dawkinsi. Two tines on the right and 

 one on the left antler spring near the burr. 



While the recognition of one or more continental races in addition to the Irish 

 race is clearly desirable, attention may be called to the pertinent comment of Scharff , 

 that some of the continental authorities do not sufficiently realize the extreme 

 variability of the Megaceros antlers, and tend to found races and varieties on 

 insufficient grounds. 

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