I 2 
British Deer and their Horns 
There are probably no better examples in existence than the following :— 
1. A head in the possession of the Duke of Westminster, obtained from Tullamore, 
Ireland. (2 illustrations.) 
2. A head in the possession of Sir Edmund Loder. Obtained in County Limerick. 
(2 illustrations.) 
3. A head in the Royal Dublin Society, presented by Archdeacon Maunsell. (Illus¬ 
trated.) 
4. A head in the possession of Lord Powerscourt. 
All these heads are but little broken, and perfect examples of adult heads. The 
following are their correct measurements :— 
Spread (extreme) 
Length round inside 
of Horn 
Circumference 
above Brow 
Palm 
Points 
The Duke of Westminster’s big head 
9 ft- 3 i in. 
Each horn 6 ft. 
io| in. 
25 
22 
Sir E. Loder’s head .... 
9 ft. 5 in. 
Right horn 6 ft. 
I 3 f in- 
22l 
28 
Archdeacon Maunsell’s head (Royal 
9 ft. 2 in. 
2 in.; left horn 
6 ft. i in. 
Right horn (out¬ 
I2f in. 
22l 
22 
Dublin Society) .... 
Lord Powerscourt’s head . 
9 ft. 5 in. 
side) 5 ft. 9 in. 
11 in. 
20 
Lord Digby has the best collection that I have yet seen of first-class megaceros 
heads, at his country seat near Tullamore, Ireland. In the British Museum is a fine 
head (on skeleton) with a span of 10 feet 2 inches. In the Hunterian Museum at Glasgow 
there is also a good head having the right bay tine bifurcated like that of the big Dublin 
head, and there is a head with the fine span of 11 feet 3 inches at Kirkpatrick, County 
Kildare. Indeed, nearly every big country house in Cork or Limerick has a good example 
of this great extinct deer. 
Sir Richard Owen s measurements of these heads cannot, I think, be accepted as 
correct, for, with all respect for his authority as an osteologist, one can hardly doubt that 
in this matter he must have relied greatly on hearsay. Take the big Dublin head, for 
instance ; the 7 feet which he gives as the length of the horn could hardly be a slip of 
the pen for 5 feet 9 inches, which is the correct length. Nearly all his measurements 
are on this magnificent scale, though I do not doubt that where he took them himself 
they were done in perfect good faith and honesty. 
Few men measure horns exactly in the same way, even when any standard is accepted, 
but in the heads here referred to the exaggeration of Owen’s figures is only too manifest. 
He states also that the palm sometimes attains a breadth of 3 feet, which is far in excess 
of anything yet known. The Knole specimen, to which he so eulogistically refers, is, 
in fact, a very ordinary one. 
Owen, however, has given us the first really scientific and well-illustrated explanation 
of this grand creature, and we are all very grateful to him in consequence. Well do I 
remember going to the old British Museum with my mother some twenty years ago, when 
the great scientist showed us round with his usual courtesy and made things generally so 
