Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 1 (1877).djvu/115

Rh It seems also to have occurred in Switzerland and in England, as well as in Moravia and Lower Austria.

2. Within historic times it inhabited Egypt (tombs of Beni-Hassan) and Assyria; and, in the latter part of the middle ages, Switzerland and Alsace.

3. It is still found in a wild state in Asia Minor, North Africa, Sardinia, and apparently in parts of Spain and Greece, and perhaps still in the Cevennes and the Alps of Dauphiné.

4. The size and strength of the antlers, as well as the size of the skull, have in course of time degenerated. The skull and antlers of existing Fallow Deer are smaller than those of prehistoric times.

 

the interesting essay by Dr. Jeitteles many cases of the reputed discovery of the remains of the Fallow Deer are collected together to prove that the animal is indigenous in Northern Europe, and not imported from the south, as heretofore has been supposed by many able naturalists, such as Blasius, Steenstrup, Rütimeyer, the late Prof. Ed. Lartet, and others. These cases are accepted by Dr. Sclater without criticism, and are deemed by him to place the importation theory, as it may be termed, in the category of "ancient fables." The question, however, seems to me, after many years' study of the fossil and recent Cervidæ of this country and of France, a very difficult one, not to be decided off-hand, and certainly not without a strict analysis of the value of evidence such as that recorded by Dr. Jeitteles, whose method and facts appear to be equally in error.

The identification of fragments of antlers is one of the most difficult tasks which a naturalist can take in hand, and where there are several species of deer associated together in the same deposit, it is sometimes impossible to assign a given fragment to its rightful owner. For example, in the forest beds of Norfolk and Suffolk, and in the Pleiocenes of the Continent, there is a vast number of antlers which are ownerless, and which have completely baffled 