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Show 1905.] REMAINS OF THE RED DEER. 211 portion of the antler attached; it is erect and tapering, and has no tynes; the upper portion is lost. The antler seems too robust and the pedicle too long for the pricket, or first antler of the Red Deer." He adds that the missing portion of the antler was probably much longer than the part preserved. The next specimen was obtained by Mr. S. H. Needham from a Pleistocene fissure-deposit in the Isle of Portland, and it is now preserved in the Museum of Practical Geology. It consists of an almost perfect left frontal with the base of the antler attached. The pedicle is long, directed upwards, outwards, and backwards, and the antler being obliquely set on the pedicle is still further directed outwards. The last specimen to be noticed was obtained from the Holocene alluvium of Moorfields, London, and is now in the Collection of Dr. Frank Corner. It is a left frontal with the greater portion of the antler preserved. The antler and pedicle are much more erect in this than in the Portland example. The following are the dimensions in inches of the three examples :- Ilford. I. of Portland. Moorfields. Height of pedicle behind........... 2-1 1-82 2-16 Circumference of pedicle ....... 3-5 3-8 3-75 „ burr............... 3-9 4-75 5-0 Length of antlers preserved .... 4-5 4-3 8-2 It is obvious on comparing the three specimens that they are referable to one species, and if the determination depended merely on the form of the frontal they would be referred to C. elaphus. The difficulty which has been felt in making this reference therefore arises in the elongation of the pedicle and in the Pricket-like tyneless antler which it supports. Prof. Blasius, in his account * of the development of the antlers in the Red Deer, shows that immediately behind the offset of each of the principal tynes there is a " knee-bend," i. e. the beam above each of those points is bent convexly backwards. He then deals with some interesting cases in which the tynes have been suppressed, and I would quote the following passage as particularly bearing on the present specimens:- " So wie an einer Stange, kann an beiden die Mittelsprosse fehlen, und nur durch die knieformige Biegung der Hauptstange a-ngedeutet sein ; dann hatte man der Form nach einen Sechser, der jagdmassig als Gabelhirsch zahlen wiirde. Fehlte auch die Augensprosse, so hatte man einen Spiesser, den man cler Form nach jedoch als Sechser ansprechen miisste." The Moorfields antler shows on careful examination a very slight knee-bend behind and a little prominent tubercle in front at a distance of two inches from the burr ; at a distance of six and * Blasius, J. H., ‘ Saugethiere Deutschlands,' pp. 444-453, passage cited p. 447. |
