Extinct British Deer 
11 
and we can guess that any large animal, when floating (particularly one with so heavy a 
head as the beast in question), would naturally assume such a position in the water when 
decomposition set in. 
There is no evidence that the megaceros survived the glacial period and existed 
within historic times. Neither Caesar, Pliny, nor Tacitus mentions such a creature. 
And now as to the heads of these gigantic animals. Without going into a scientific 
explanation as to the precise form of antler annually thrown out, I may say that the horns 
most closely resemble those of its modern representative, the fallow buck, except that the 
points emanate from the anterior and terminal margin of the horns, instead of issuing from 
the posterior margin. 
The weight of an adult megaceros head is about 70 lbs. Owen, however, gives the 
big head presented by Archdeacon Maunsell to the Royal Dublin Society as 87 lbs. 
avoirdupois, and there can be little doubt that, owing to the action of time, the horns 
themselves weigh somewhat less now than at the moment of the animal’s death. How 
marvellous, then, must have been the physical strength of the creature that could throw 
out such a mass of osseous matter in the short period of four months, for the horn-growth 
of the megaceros doubtless followed the same rules as those which govern the horn-growth 
of other deer. 
Very interesting is it to the naturalist to trace the horn-growth in deer from their 
earliest youth till they reach maturity and commence to decline ; but, so far as I know, 
no one has thought it worth while to collect the whole series of this great deer’s head. 
Owen gives examples of two immature horns, the first of which, supposing it to follow the 
course of the fallow buck, would seem to be that of an animal that has already shed its antlers 
twice, for the fallow buck does not grow the back point until the third pair is thrown out. 
To this series of Sir Richard Owen’s, in which he includes the fine Dublin head as 
an adult, I can now add figures of (1) a good example of abnormal bifurcation in the 
possession of the Dublin Museum, and (2) the head of what is apparently a very old 
animal going back. In the case of the latter the horns are not broken, as the reader may 
think at first glance, but are those of a beast which was seemingly too old to complete 
its full horn-growth. I have seen several such heads, but the present example (in the 
collection of Sir Edmund Loder at Leonardslee) is a remarkably fine one (p. 19). 
Well, these heads are so huge and splendid that any man who is fortunate enough 
to possess a fair specimen may be forgiven for imagining it to be better than it really is. 
The average man sees but few of these heads, and it is only by inspecting a very large 
number, and constantly using the all-levelling tape, that an expert can pick out the one 
or two genuine monsters. 
Some heads there are which on paper look extraordinary, one in Ireland spanning 
no less than 13 feet, but then to form a right judgment of a megaceros head we must 
take into consideration other points besides size in determining its claim to excellence. 1 
In many of what would otherwise be first-class heads there is such a quantity of plaster, and 
so many pieces of “ Nature’s virgin forest,” that they are at once placed out of the running. 
1 The 11 feet 6 inches head in the Dublin Museum, presented by the Marquis of Bath, is fearfully manufactured, and 
has no real claims to distinction in the matter of span. 
C 2 
