Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 34.djvu/492

410 the older animal with four tynes figured by Dr. Sclater, and living in the Zoological Gardens, London, in 1870. It is evident, from the history of antler-development in the round-antlered Deer, that Cervus perrieri must have had an antler with two and three tynes before it arrived at the number of four, or just such an antler as this in question. For these reasons, and although the brow-tyne is set on at a smaller angle than in the type specimen of Cervus perrieri, I feel inclined to view C. pardinensis as a variety and not a distinct species. All these three antlers (figs. 3–5) are found in the same Pliocene strata at Mont Perrier. Nevertheless it must not be forgotten that Deer of the Axis and Rusa type possessing this form of three-tyned antler live in the Oriental Region along with those possessing four-tyned antlers, C. taëvanus and C. mantchuricus, and that therefore it is possible that C. pardinensis may be a distinct species from C. perrieri. For this reason the name is retained in this contribution to the history of the Cervidæ.

Cervus etueriarum, Croizet and Jobert, op. cit. pl. vi. figs. 1 & 2, and pls. vii. & viii.; Gervais, op. cit. p. 148.

C. rusoides, Pomel, op. cit. p. 106.

C. stylodus, Bravard, MSS. No. 182.

C. peyrollensis, Bravard, MSS.

The antlers (including one of the typical specimens of Croizet and Jobert preserved in the Museum of the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, and referable to the above species or form) are all small, and are as closely allied to Cervus pardinensis as the Axis is to the Rusa. It is, however, safer, in the present imperfect state of our knowledge, to keep them separate.

Definition.—Antlers (fig. 6) possessed of a graceful double curvature, and with three tynes; grooved basally; burr at right angles to long axis of pedicle; pedicle short; brow-tyne (B) set on at an acute angle, which approaches in some specimens a right angle, round; second tyne (D) round; fork of crown webbed, acute-angled in some, right-angled in others.

The antlers which possess these characters I have met with in the Jardin des Plantes from Mont Perrier, and from the Pliocenes of the Val d'Arno, from which place those in the British Museum (Nos. 28833 & 28834) were obtained by Mr. Pentland. I have also observed the same form in the Museum at Lyons in 1873 from Chagny (Saône et Loire), as well as in the Museum at Florence.

The series of antlers in the British Museum obtained from Peyrolles by M. Bravard, and named Cervus peyrollensis and C. stylodus, are undistinguishable from those of C. etueriarum (Nos. 34516 and 34521, 3, 6, 7, 8 of the Museum Catalogue).

Living Representative.—The Cervus etueriarum is closely allied to the Axis, Chetul, or Spotted Deer of India, some varieties of which