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Show 1878.] CLASSIFICATION OF THE CERVID^. 911 France ; Spain ; Germany ; Austria ; Turkey ; Greece ; Corsica ; Sardinia ; Province of Constantine (Algeria) ; Asia Minor; Caucasus. A comparison of the gigantic antlers of the Red Deer of the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries preserved in the old hunting Schloss at Moritzburg (built 1540), near Dresden, with the antlers of Red Deer from the islands of Harris or Sardinia, shows in a most striking manner the great variations to which this species is subject. Some of the antlers at Moritzburg measure 50 inches along the outside curve, are 10 inches in circumference round the smallest part of the beam, and the two antlers carry from 24 to 50 points. The spread between the coronal tines of one specimen is 74 inches. Antlers from Harris and Sardinia rarely exceed 30 inches in length, their circumference being about 4 inches ; they very rarely carry a larger number than 12 points; and their span seldom exceeds 28 inches. I have considered the African Deer, Cervus barbarus, specifically identical with Cervus elaphus. Specimens from Corsica and Sardinia completely bridge over the characters which have been advanced as distinctive of the African and European races. The second brow-antler is rarely developed in the African form ; but I have known instances of its occurrence. 26. CERVUS XANTHOPYGUS. 1831. Cervus elaphus, Pall. Zoogr. Rosso-Asiat. vol. i. p. 217. 1853. , Midd. Sib. Reis. Wirb., Band ii. Th. 2, p. 120. 1859. , Schrenck, Reis. u. Forsch. Amurlande, Band i. p. 170. 1862. , Radde, Reis. im Slid. v. Ost-Sib. Band i. p. 284. 1867. xanthopygus, Alph. M.-Edw. Ann. Sc. Nat. ser. 5, vol. viii. p. 376 ; Rech. s. 1. M a m m . p. 181, pl. 21. 1876. elaphus, Prejevalsky, Mongolia (Engl, trans.), vol. i. p. 164. Range. From the Caucasus to the Altai, and thence round Baikal through Dauria, as far as the Lena and Witim (Pallas); thence to the mountains surrounding the sources of the Silimdsha and Bureja (Middendorff) ; along the Amoor, as far eastwards as the Gorin and the Chelasso, and thence southwards to the sea-coast, a few days' journey south of the Bay of Kastries (Schrenck) ; Cbinghan Mountains (Badde) ; Munniula Mountains (China, lat. of Pekin) (Prejevalsky). Type, Mus. d'Hist. Nat. Paris. This species was founded provisionally by Professor Alphonse Milne-Edwards upon the examination of a single specimen, certain cranial peculiarities and the large size of the anal disk deciding him that it was expedient for the time being to keep the form separate from Cervus elaphus. It is by no means certain that Cervus xanthopygus (should the species ultimately prove distinct from Cervus elaphus, which I greatly doubt) is the form found in all the localities above mentioned. The exact limits of the distribution eastwards of Cervus elaphus, Cervus eustephanus (Blanf.), and Cervus maral |