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Show 360 MR. LYDEKKER ON A [Dec. 2, with their antlers in this forked stage. The antlers, in such cases, only become heavier each year, and show longer tines without developing new points. A similar tendency to remain in the three-pointed stage is also apparent. The forked and three-pointed stages are indeed the starting-points from which the palmated and non-palmated antlers diverge and develop in different directions. The forked stage of the immature antler with rounded tines may to a certain extent be regarded as a repetition of the phylogenetic development, so that in this way the " cervine " elk-antler, whether it be called a development of the young stage or a reversion, displays primitive characteristics in its rounded tines. This must not, however, be understood to mean that I infer that the nearest ancestors of the common Elk had antlers of exactly the same type as those here termed " cervine." Finally, I will only remark that an Elk with the antlers so well developed as text-fig. 73 (p. 356) is still at its most vigorous age, as a glance at its dentition is sufficient to indicate. The incisors are not so worn but that they form a continuous edge, with the outer broad ends fully in contact with each other. In the same way the molars do not look much worn, the accessory columns of the upper ones being perfectly intact. 2. Note on a Reindeer Skull from Novaia Zemlia. By R, L y d e k k e r . [Received November 1.5,1902.] (Text-figure 77.) By the courtesy of Mr. II. J. Pearson, F.Z.S., of Bramcote, Notts, in whose possession is the specimen, I am enabled to bring to the notice of the Society a, Reindeer's skull, with a remarkably fine pair of antlers, obtained by that gentleman from the top of a Samoyed's hut in Novaia Zemlia in 1895. The specimen has already been figured, with a brief description, by the owner in his ‘ Beyond Petsora Eastward' (1899); but its interest is such that 1 have no hesitation in bringing it more prominently into notice. The antlers are characterized by the great development and palmation of both the brow- and bez-tines, which are, however (unlike the majority of American Reindeer), not very unequal in size. The beam is of medium length and carries a very large back-tine ; above the latter there is a large palmation, most developed on the left side, terminating in a number of irregular snags. The length of the antlers, from base to tip, along the curve is 49 inches ; the palmation of the larger of the two brow-tines has a vertical depth of 16 inches, its fellow 114 inches. That these antlers are quite unlike those of the Scandinavian Reindeer (or, at least, any that have come under my own observation) is apparent at a glance. They are less unlike those of |