Reindeer 33 



This and other objections to Sir Victor Brooke's classification have attracted 

 the attention of Mr. Allan Gordon Cameron, who, in an important paper 

 communicated to the Field newspaper, 1 has strongly urged the importance 

 of the antlers as a primary means of classification, and has called attention 

 to the essential difference between the " brow-tined " and the " forked " 

 types of antler. And as both these types are of very considerable antiquity, 

 dating from ages long antecedent to the present epoch, it does appear that 

 antlers should be accorded much higher value in classification than many 

 writers are disposed to assign to them. Moreover, in the case of the 

 majority of extinct species reliance has to be placed almost or quite ex- 

 clusively on the characters of these appendages ; and it is only by taking 

 them as the basis that it is possible to bring the living and extinct forms 

 into line. There are many instances among animals where two distinct 

 characteristics, if taken as bases of classification, afford dissimilar results ; and 

 as in the present case the antlers appear to be of decidedly more importance 

 than the lateral metacarpals, the divisions proposed by Sir Victor Brooke 

 are superseded by those advanced by Mr. Gordon Cameron. 



I. Reindeer — Genus Rangifer 



Rangifer, H. Smith, in Griffith's Animal Kingdom, vol. v. p. 304 (1827), 

 as a sub-genus; Brooke, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1878, p. 927 ; Riitimeyer, Abli. 

 schweiz. pal. Ges. vol. viii. p. 51 (1881). 



Tarandus, Ogilby, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1836, p. 134 ; Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 

 1850, p. 224, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 2, vol. ix. p. 416 (1852), Cat. 

 Ungulata Brit. Mus. p. 189 (1852); Fitzinger, SB. Ak. JYien, vol. lxviii. 

 part i. p. 349 (1873), lxix. part i. p. 534 (1874). 



Characters. — Lateral metacarpal bones represented only by their lower 

 (distal) extremities. Antlers present in both sexes, complex, situated close 

 to the occipital ridge of the skull, and thus far away from the sockets of 

 the eyes (orbits), with the brow-tines of adult males palmated, laterally 

 compressed, deflected towards the middle line of the face, and often un- 

 symmetrically developed. Above the brow-tine is developed a second 

 palmated tine, which appears to represent the bez ; there is no trez, but 

 some distance above the bez the beam is suddenly bent forwards to form an 

 " elbow," on the posterior side of which is usually a short back-tine ; above 



1 Sec Appendix. 

 F 



