MONOGRAPH 



ON 



THE BRITISH MAMMALIA 



OF THE 



PLEISTOCENE PERMIT). 



THE GIANT DEEE. 



Order-UNGULATA. 

 Suborder-ARTIODACTYLA. 



Family— CERVIDiE. 



Genus — Cervus. 



Species — Cervus giganteus (Blumenbacli), Lydekker. 

 Cervus (Megaceros) hibernicus, Wilde, Ball. 

 Cervus megaceros, Hart, Adams, Newton. 

 Megaceros hibernicus, Owen, Carte. 



A complete list of synonyms is given by Woodward and Sherborn, ' British Fossil 

 Vertebrata,' pp. 332—3. In addition to the misnomer Irish Elk, the animal has been 

 termed the Irish Giant Deer and the Giant Fallow Deer. In the following pages the 

 terms Irish Giant Deer, the Giant Deer and the Megaceros are all employed. 



I. HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. 



It is not to be wondered at that the remains of an animal so conspicuous as the 

 Irish Giant Deer or Megaceros, and occurring in such large numbers, attracted attention 

 in Ireland at a very early date, the first account being T. Molyneux's description (l) 1 

 in 1697 of a fine skull with antlers found at Dardistown near Drogheda. Molyneux, 

 in a paper very remarkable for the time at which it was written, showed clearly that 

 the antlers were not in any way related to those of the Elk, but believing the American 

 Moose, an animal with which he was imperfectly acquainted, to be distinct from 

 the Elk, be proposed to refer the Irish bones to that species. He suggested an epidemic 

 distemper as a cause of the animal's extinction. 



The earliest reference to the occurrence of the Irish Deer in England is T. 



Knowlton's (1746) (5) description of a skull with antlers found at North Dreighton in 



Yorkshire. Pennant (1781) (9) pointed out differences between the antlers and those 



of the Elk and quoted measurements. The Elk is not the only living animal to which 



1 Numbers in parentheses refer to the bibliography. 



I 



