tributed over Europe and Western Asia, being one of the species found in the British Isles. The male is somewhat over two feet in height at the withers, of a dark reddish-brown colour in summer, with a white patch on the rump. The small antlers are approximated at their bases, and consist of a rugged beam rising vertically for some distance, then bifurcating, and the posterior branch again dividing. The Roe dates from the Pleistocene period. Extinct Deer from the Continental Pliocene have been provisionally referred to Capreolus.

Hydropotes.1-No antlers in either sex. Lachrymal fossa deep and short (Fig. 134); lachrymal vacuity of moderate size. Orbits

FIG. 134. The left lateral view of the skull of a male Chinese Water Deer (Hydropotes inermis), with the wall of the maxilla cut away to show the root of the canine.natural size. (From Sir V. Brooke, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1872, p. 524.)

small and but slightly prominent. Auditory bulla much inflated. Angle of mandible much produced backwardly (Fig. 134); alveolar margins of mandible in diastema sharp and everted. Canines of male very large, and slightly convergent. Vertebræ : C 7, D 12,

FIG. 135.-Upper surface of the brain of Hydropotes inermis. (From Garrod, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1877, p. 792.)

L 6, S 4, C 10. No tufts on metatarsals. Foot glands small in fore feet, deep in hind ones.

The Chinese Water Deer (H. inermis) is the sole representative of this genus. In the absence of antlers and the large canines of the male it resembles Moschus, although very different in other respects. Thus the brain (Fig. 135) has the hemispheres much

1 Swinhoe, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1870, p. 90.

while the placenta and viscera likewise agree with those of the true Deer. In the total absence of any ossification of the vomer to divide the posterior nares Hydropotes resembles Capreolus and differs from all the following genera. The Chinese Water-Deer is nearly of the same size as the Indian Muntjac. It has short legs and a long body, the hair covering the latter being of a light reddishbrown. It is a remarkably prolific animal, differing from all other Deer in producing five or six young at a time.

The mandible of a ruminant from the Middle Miocene of Gers in France, described under the name of Platyprosopus, presents such a marked remblance to Hydropotes in the form of the angle as to suggest a more or less intimate affinity.

Cariacus. Skull (Fig. 132) with the vomer dividing the posterior nares into two distinct chambers; premaxillæ not reaching nasals. Antlers never greatly exceeding the length of the head. Lachrymal vacuity very large, and lachrymal fossa small. Auditory bulle slightly inflated. Vertebræ: C 7, D 13, L 6, S 4, C 13. Tail long or short. Colour uniform in adult.

This genus, which agrees with the Reindeer in the division of the posterior nares by the ossified vomer, comprises a number of species confined to the New World, none of which attain very large dimensions, and the antlers of which are relatively smaller than in the existing species of Cervus. The genus may be divided into groups.

The typical Cariacine group, as represented by C. virginianus, has well-developed antlers, with a short brow tine rising from the inner side of the beam, and directed upwards, and several branches; a long tail; and no upper canines. In this species, as well as in C. mexicanus and other forms, the antlers do not divide dichotomously, and the lachrymal fossa is of moderate depth. The Mule Deer (C. macrotis) of North America is distinguished by the dichotomous branching of the antlers and the deeper lachrymal fossa. The Virginian Deer is somewhat smaller than the Fallow Deer, and of a uniform reddish-yellow colour in summer, and light gray in winter.

The Blastocerine group of South America is represented by C. paludosus and C. campestris, and has dichotomous antlers, with no brow tine, and the posterior branch the larger, a short tail, and no upper canines. The Furciferine group includes C. chilensis and C. antisiensis, confined to western South America. The antlers are not longer than the head, with a large anterior tine curving forwards at right angles to the simple posterior one. Auditory bullæ slightly inflated, and rugose. Upper canines may be present. The species are of medium size. C. clavatus, of Central America, while resembling this group in the characters of the skull and the arrangement

1 Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1850, p. 237.

of the hair on the face, agrees with the next one in having simple spike-like antlers.

The South American Coassine group comprises the small forms known as Brockets, in which the antlers form simple spikes not exceeding half the length of the head. Some six species are known. Remains of Cariacus, mostly or entirely referable to existing species, are of common occurrence in the Brazilian cave-deposits. Blastomery, of the Pliocene of North America, is believed to be an allied type.

Pudua.1-Antlers in the form of minute simple spikes. Distinguished from the Coassine group of Cariacus by the articulation of the premaxilla with the nasals (as in the Furciferine group), and the coalescence of the ectocuneiform with the naviculo-cuboid. as well as by various external characters. No upper canines. Represented only by the very small P. humilis of the Chilian Andes.

Extinct Genera. In the European and other Tertiary deposits several genera of extinct Cervidae occur, of which the more important may be briefly mentioned. Amphitragulus, of the Lower Miocene of the Continent, has four lower premolars, brachydont molars, and no antlers; the largest species being somewhat bigger than the Musk-Deer. The closely allied Palæomeryx (Dremotherium or Micromeryx) generally has but three lower premolars, and the brachydont upper molars (Fig. 122), like those of Amphitragulus, want the small accessory inner column found in modern Deer. In P. feignouri, of the Lower Miocene, the lateral metacarpals, although slender, were complete, and the males had large canines, but no antlers. P.furcatus, of the Middle Miocene, had small antlers, and the canines appear to have been reduced in size. This genus, besides being represented in the European Miocene, also occurs in the Pliocene of India and China; some of the species being as large as the Red Deer.

Family GIRAFFIDÆ.

In the existing genus the frontal appendages consist of a pair of short, erect, permanent bony processes placed over the union of the frontal and the parietal bones, ossified from distinct centres, though afterwards ankylosed to the skull, covered externally with a hairy skin, present in both sexes, and even in the new-born animal. Anterior to these is a median protuberance on the frontal and contiguous parts of the nasal bones, which increases with age, and is sometimes spoken of as a third horn. Skull with a lachrymal vacuity. No upper canines. Molars brachydont, with rugose

1 Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1850, p. 242.

2 This accessory column is shown in the figure of the molar of Boselaphus on p. 311.

enamel; the upper ones having no inner accessory column. Lateral digits entirely absent on both fore and hind feet, even the hoofs not developed. Humerus with double bicipital groove. Vertebræ :

C7, D 14, L5, S 3, C 20. Gall-bladder generally absent. Male reproductive organs and placenta of a Bovine type. Dentition : i f, c f, p ž, m 3.

Giraffa.-The Giraffe (G. camelopardalis) is the sole existing representative of the genus, now confined to the Ethiopian region. 1 Zimmermann, Geograph. Geschichte, vol. ii. p. 125 (1780).

In addition to the characters noticed above, the Giraffe is characterised by its great size and peculiar proportions; the neck and limbs being of great length, and the back inclining upwards from the loins to the withers.

To produce the extremely elongated neck the seven cervical vertebræ are proportionately long, which gives a somewhat stiff and awkward motion to the neck. The ears are large, the lips long and thin, the nostrils closable at the will of the animal, the tongue very long and extensile, and the tail of considerable length, with a large terminal tuft. An adult male may have a total height of 16 feet. The coloration consists of large blotches of darker or lighter chestnutbrown on a paler ground, the lower limbs and under parts being of a uniform pale colour. The Giraffe feeds almost exclusively on the foliage of trees, showing a preference for certain varieties of mimosa, and for the young shoots of the prickly acacia, for browsing on which its prehensile tongue and large free lips are specially adapted. It is gregarious in its habits, living in small herds of about twenty individuals, although Sir S. Baker, who hunted it in Abyssinia, states that he has seen as many as a hundred together.

Fossil species of Giraffa occur in Pliocene deposits over Greece, Persia, India, and China, thus affording one of many striking instances of the former wide distribution of the generic types now confined to the Ethiopian region.

Allied Extinct Types.-The Pliocene deposits of many parts of the Old World yield remains of a number of large Ruminants which show such evident signs of affinity with the Giraffe that it is difficult to draw up a definition by which they can be separated in characters of family value from that genus. On the other hand, some of these forms approximate in the characters of the skull to some of the brachydont members of the Bovide, although it is quite clear from the nature of the cranial appendages that they cannot be included in that family. All these forms have brachydont molars, with rugose enamel, like those of the Giraffe; while several of them have limbbones approximating to those of the latter-the humerus, when known, having a double bicipital groove. The nature of the cranial appendages (when present) is not fully understood, but it appears that in some cases these approximated more to the type of an antler than to that of a horn; although, from the absence of a "burr," they appear never to have been shed. A gradual diminution in the length of the limbs and neck can be traced from the more Giraffoid to the more Bovoid forms of this extinct group; and it is manifest that if these animals be included in the Giraffide the definition of that family as given above must be somewhat modified. Only brief mention can be made of the more important genera.

The imperfectly known Vishnutherium, of the Pliocene of India and Burma, seems to make the nearest approach to the Giraffe, but