Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 1 (1877).djvu/119

Rh variation of antler. Till such an antler be found it is better to keep the animals apart in classification. And even if they be viewed as belonging to one species, they have only been met with in pleistocene deposits in this country and in France, and they may reasonably be taken as visitors from the south, such as the contemporary Hippopotami. In any case, I would submit that they do not afford satisfactory grounds for believing with Dr. Jeitteles that the present distribution of the Fallow Deer in Northern and Central Europe by the hand of man is "an ancient fable." It is undoubtedly an ancient belief, and it is one which can be proved to some extent to be true by an appeal to the records of history.

To enter into the question of the introduction of Fallow Deer into Northern Europe would far outleap the limits of an article. A reference to Lenz's 'Zoologie der Alten,' and to Neckham's 'Natural History,' will show to what an extent the wealthy Romans and mediaeval barons were in the habit of importing wild and rare animals for the chase, as well as for the sake of mere curiosity.

Sir Victor Brooke, writing "on the existence of the Fallow Deer in England during pleistocene times" ('Nature,' I4th Jan. 1875), has shown pretty conclusively that the species called Cervus Brownii, which was founded by Prof. Boyd Dawkins (Quart. Geol. Journ., 1868, p. 514) upon some abnormal antlers dug up at Clacton in Essex, is identical with Cervus dama, and that "under the former title the fact of the existence of the Fallow Deer in England during the pleistocene period lies in some degree obscured."

In this determination Prof. Boyd Dawkins himself has since expressed his concurrence ('Nature,' 21st Jan. 1875), remarking that Sir Victor Brooke's essay leaves no room for doubting that "the antlers named in the books Cervus Brownii and C. somonensis really belong to a variety of the living Fallow Deer," and he thanks the author "for having brought forward evidence on the point which is not presented by any of the large series known to me in the British and Continental Museums, and without which I could not venture to identify the fossil with the living form. He has supplied the missing link hitherto sought in vain, and thereby removed two synonyms from the bulky catalogue of fossil Mammalia."