Extinct British Deer 17 
interesting that it seems somewhat ungracious in me to be now finding fault with his 
figures. We must remember, however, how few specimens Sir Richard had to study 
compared with the wealth of examples the student has to-day, and how natural it was for 
him to generalise as to the possible lengths which horns might be found to have attained. 
The Reindeer (Cervus tarandus ).—This deer must have been very abundant in later 
Pleistocene times. There is no doubt that, together with the gigantic Irish deer, they 
grazed in large herds on the margins of the Irish lakes, where they eventually became 
entombed, and it is more than probable that they were the most common species of deer, not 
excepting the red deer, for Professor Boyd Dawkins found portions of the bones and 
horns in no less than thirteen out of the twenty-one caverns examined by him, whilst 
remains of the red deer were only found in seven. The greatest number of horns found 
in one place is recorded by Sir Charles Lyell as discovered in a cave in Glamorganshire. 
He gives the number of antlers as a thousand. In point of form and entirety of parts quite 
the best skulls and antlers have been found in Ireland. Those in the possession of the 
Royal Dublin Society are probably unequalled, the best specimen coming from the Curragh 
bog, near Ashbourne, County Dublin, where it was found in 1861. Dr. Carte describes it in 
1863 as “the finest specimen of reindeer that has yet been found in a fossil state,” and 
Professor V. Ball says that the largest specimen in that collection measures 3 feet 7 inches 
round the curve, with a span of 3 feet. A much finer example of a single horn, however, 
has recently been acquired by the British Museum, South Kensington. It was found at 
D 
