Characters 



63 



As regards the number of their tines, the antlers of this group are 

 evidently the most specialised of all the existing members of the genus, no 

 other group having brow, bez, and trez all normally developed. Cupping 

 in the crown of the antler, as a normal feature, seems to be in the main 

 confined to the red deer, where it is most developed in its typical or 

 western form, although occasionally found in the wapiti ; and as we 

 proceed eastwards the type of antler gradually simplifies. It has been 

 suggested that " cupping " is a modern feature solelv due to high feeding ; 

 but it is observable in the antlers preserved in several of the old German 

 castles, and also in many prehis- 

 toric specimens from the British 

 fens. This is finely exemplified 

 in a magnificent pair of antlers 

 from an Irish bog preserved in the 

 British Museum, one of which is 

 figured on page 472 of Owen's 

 British Fossil Mammals and Birds. 

 All the members of the red deer 

 group from Central Asia have 

 comparatively simple uncupped 

 antlers, the most primitive type 

 being displayed by Thorold's 

 deer, in which the antlers are 



flattened and have no bez-tine. F ig. 16.— Antlers of Red Deer from Scotland, with fully 

 This type of antler approximates developed cups. (Rowland Ward, Records of Big 



closely to that of the sikine group, 



from which the elaphines are doubtless derived. Central Asia may, indeed, 

 be regarded as the original home of the present group, where it probably 

 developed from the sikines. One branch from this primitive stock seems 

 to have spread westward to culminate in the modern red deer, and suc- 

 ceeded in reaching as far south as North Africa, at a time when that area 

 was in immediate connection with Europe. A second branch is formed 

 by the wapitis, of which two races are still inhabitants of Central and 

 North-Eastern Asia, while the third and fourth migrated by way of what 

 is now Bering Strait to North America. 



The generally uniform coloration of the adult pelage, and the develop- 



