Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 1 (1877).djvu/120

94 But this has little to do with the question raised by Herr Jeitteles, namely, whether the Fallow Deer now living in Northern and Central Europe was introduced—like the horse into South America—by the hand of man.

On this point Sir Victor Brooke says (l.c.):—"Whether the Fallow Deer became extinct in Northern Europe before the advent of prehistoric man, or whether it continued to exist in these islands even at the commencement of the Roman occupation, are questions beside that of the truth of the "ancient belief" to which Mr. Boyd Dawkins shows such firm allegiance. "In either case the species may have been reintroduced by the Romans, a people whose magnificently lavish expenditure upon luxury and pleasure despised bounds."

While on the subject of Fallow Deer, it will not be out of place to call attention to the fact that the Fallow Deer of Western Persia (and therefore presumably the animal found in Western Asia, referred to by Herr Jeitteles) has been shown by Sir Victor Brooke to be a larger animal distinct from Cervus dama. He has described and figured it under the name of Cervus mesopotamicus (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1875, pl. xxxviii.) from specimens procured in the Provinces of Khurzistan and Luristan, in Western Persia, at the head of the Persian Gulf.

The peculiarity of this species lies chiefly in the shape of the horns, which are palmated immediately above the burrs, with a strong cylindrical beam rising from the posterior corner of the palm, and terminating in three well-developed tines. In other words, the cylindrical beam is above the palmation, or precisely the reverse of what obtains in Cervus dama.

Sir Victor Brooke says:—"In the development from the fanshaped palm of a definite strong cylindrical beam, terminated with points, the new species presents a type of horn which stands unique amongst existing Cervidæ."