1 26 Damine Group 



vulgaris, as well as D. mesopotamica, from the shape of their antlers — neglect- 

 ing the palmation, an evidently insignificant character — are intimately 

 allied to the pseudaxine [equal sikine] group." It may be added that, in 

 addition to the elaphine, these are the only groups of Cervus in which a 

 true trez-tine is developed, and that the two resemble one another in the 

 black and white markings of the caudal region. Moreover, occasionally a 

 bez- (second) tine is developed, thus adding to the elaphine resemblances. 

 Such a tine is exhibited on one side of a pair of antlers of the common 

 species in the collection at Woburn Abbey, where there are also two other 

 pairs showing a small knob on each side just above the brow-tine, which evi- 



FlG. 32. — Fallow Deer at Woburn Abbey. From a photograph by the Duchess of Bedford. 



dently represent a rudimentary bez. The occasional development of a bez- 

 tine in the common fallow deer has been pointed out by Mr. G. H. Fowler 

 in a paper published in the Proc. Zool. Soc. for 1894. Mr. Sclater, while 

 including the sikas in Cervus, separates the fallow deer as a distinct genus 

 {Duma), but there seems little justification for this course. 



Typically the skull differs from that of the red deer group not only by 

 hortness, but also by its greater breadth, and the larger size of the brain- 

 cavity and the eye-sockets. These characters are also found to a great 

 extent in the giant extinct fallow deer, which was shown by Riitimeyer to 

 be closely allied to the existing forms ; and since a connecting link, so far 

 as the antlers are concerned, has been subsequently discovered in Ruff's 



