Extinct British Deer 5 
a back point at the commencement of the palmation. 1 One horn seems to be that of an adult 
animal, and there is quite enough of the palm still preserved to show such a point, had it ever 
existed in the posterior ridge. The brow and the bay points are remarkably fine, and seem 
to indicate that the animals of this species were much larger than the Cervus Dama of to-day. 
Gigantic Irish Deer (Megaceros hibernicus ).—It is impossible for any of us who are 
sportsmen and naturalists to look upon the complete skeleton of this truly magnificent stag 
without being impressed with the artistic beauty of its lines and the general grace which 
we naturally imagine must have belonged to its complete form. Dr. Molyneux was the 
ANCIENT BRITONS HUNTING THE MEGACEROS 
first to describe the gigantic Irish deer, and, judging from the one skull and palmated antlers 
which were all he possessed, he made the mistake of confounding it with the American 
moose. To-day, however, hundreds of the heads and a few good skeletons are in existence 
to prove how erroneous his conclusion was ; indeed, it was little short of an insult to this 
splendid and graceful creature to mistake him for the clumsy and mysterious elk. Camper 
was the first to call attention to this error and show how widely the skulls of the two animals 
differed, the elk having a prehensile upper lip and an unusual elongation of the intermaxil- 
laries and nasal apertures, whilst the shape of the megaceros conforms to that of the 
ordinary deer. 
1 In Chapter VIII. this question of the constancy of the back point in fallow deer is examined. My observations in the 
case of wild fallow deer of to-day in this country, and in past and present Asiatic forms, tend to show that the back tine is as 
often absent as present. 
