Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 1 (1877).djvu/111

Rh found in the upper peat of Denmark:—"Le Daim (Cervus dama). Bois et ossements provenants des états supérieurs de la tourbe." Nevertheless he adds, "Cet animal n'est pas originaire du Danemark; il est bien constaté qu'il a été introduit dans le pays pendant le moyen âge."

In Owen's 'History of British Fossil Mammals and Birds' (1846, pp. 483, 484) are some brief remarks on the discovery of fossil remains of the Fallow Deer in a few localities in England, but the specimens referred to are described as "far from yielding satisfactory grounds of identification." From the peat-moss of Newbury portions of palmated antlers and teeth have been dug out, which accord in size with those of the Fallow Deer, and Dr. Buckland found similar remains in the large cave of Paviland, on the coast of Glamorganshire, with the remains of the Mammoth, Rhinoceros, Hyæna, &c., "deer of two or three species, and fragments of various horns, some small, others a little palmated."

Professor Owen justly remarks that "the same doubt as to whether the latter are referable to the Reindeer or the Fallow Deer arises as in the case of the palmated fragments from Newbury."

Among the animal remains found in the Swiss Lake dwellings were discovered fragments of horn that apparently belonged to the Fallow Deer. Referring to this, Prof. Rütimeyer says: —"A number of flat pieces of palmated horn with perfectly smooth surface found in the Bieler Lake, and now in the collection of Lieutenant Schwab, of Biel, can only belong to the Fallow Deer, judging from their size and form. I could only ascribe to this animal similar pieces from Meilen, which fully agreed with the abnormal form which the horn of the Fallow Deer assumes in old age (Cuv., Ossem. Fossiles, iv., tab. iii., figs. 32—35). At the same time I must remark that I have never yet seen a perfect antler from the pile-dwellings (Pfahlbauten), nor even fragments of the skull, which, next to the horn, would offer the most important characteristics of the Fallow Deer. Reliable evidence of the spontaneous existence of this species of deer north of the Alps is therefore still desirable." Nevertheless the existence of this animal in the Terremare of Italy—which is equivalent to the Swiss Pfahlbauten—is quite certain. In the Museum of Modena are two fragments of horn, respecting which