OCR Text |
Show 1890.] ON THE STRUCTURE OF THE EYE IN ARCTURUS. 365 obtained from the Crimea, and all of which are referred to the Red Deer. One of these (represented in Plate X X X . fig. 2) is a right antler, with only a rudimental brow-tyne, and above this a straight beam with no tyne till the crown is reached. The latter is slightly palmated and terminates in three snags. Such an antler, it appears to me, is likely to be merely an earlier stage of one of the present type ; and if the one is rightly referred to the Red Deer, I think there can be no hesitation in considering the other as referable to the same form. Another and larger antler from the Crimea exhibits the usual brow-, bez-, and trez-tynes, and then expands at the summit into a distinctly palmated crown with three snags. A third, if the trez-tyne were removed, would be not at all unlike the specimen under consideration, although with less palmation of the crown. Again, on turning to the magnificent series of Red Deer antlers figured in A. B. Meyer's ' Die Hirschgeweih Sammlung im kdn . Schlosse zu Moritzburg' (1883), I find that some of the abnormal specimens approach the one before us, although none are exactly similar. Thus the left antler of the head, figured in plate xvi. of that work, has a palmation not unlike M r . Danford's specimen, although there is an inner tyne to the crown, which thus forms a cup, and the trez-tyne is developed. Again, the left antler in plate xxix. shows the complete abortion of both brow- and bez-tyne, and the absence of any trace of a trez-tyne ; the beam forming a long unbroken shaft like the specimen before mentioned. These instances are sufficient to show that the peculiarities of the antler obtained by M r . Danford are paralleled by other specimens which are clearly referable to the Red Deer, so that we have every reason for regarding it as belonging to that species. I have considered it advisable that this antler should be figured, firstly, because it has been regarded as representing a new species of Deer, and secondly, since it is important as indicating how much care must be exercised iu founding so-called new species upon detached and imperfect fossil antlers. EXPLANATION OF PLATE XXX. Fig. 1. A n abnormal right antler of Cervus elaphus, from Asia Minor. 2. Another abnormal right antler of the same species, from the Crimea. Both figures are £ nat. size. 3. On the Minute Structure of the Eye in some Shallow- Water and Deep-Sea Species of the Isopod Genus Arcturus. By F R A N K E. BEDDARD, M.A., Prosector to the Society. [Received April 15, 1890.] (Plate XXXI.) Three years ago I communicated a paper to the Royal Society of Edinburgh upon the structure of the Eye in the two Isopodan families |