ean Sea, which broke up the highway
of the Oriental migrants, is only of recent formation, there was a
steady westward march for a very considerable time. No doubt the
migration was also favoured by the fact that scarcely any formidable
barriers had to be crossed.

Many instances might be quoted of the same species forming part of the
Oriental and also of the Siberian migration, but as a rule the Siberian
migrant belongs to a distinct variety, or has such well-marked racial
characters as to be at once detected from its more southern relative.
Among the examples of Oriental migrants which I have occasion to bring
forward, such instances will be specially dealt with.

In its wild state the Red Deer (_Cervus elaphus_) is almost extinct in
the British Islands, though it still occurs in the moorlands of
Devonshire and Somersetshire in England, in the south-west of Ireland,
and in some localities in Scotland. Fifty years ago it was also found
wild in several other of the Irish western counties; and in the
seventeenth century it was common in most of the mountainous districts
of Ireland. Its remains have been found fossil in the marls and caves
of Ireland, and in the Forest-Bed, as well as in a large number of caves
in England. The history of the Red Deer in other countries is very
similar. In Scandinavia it flourished as far north as the sixty-eighth
degree of latitude, whereas it is now quite extinct on the mainland,
though still lingering on in some of the western islands. Denmark and
Switzerland know it no more, and it is almost extinct in Belgium. Nearly
throughout Europe where it occurs, its numbers are diminishing, greatly
owing, perhaps, to the relentless persecution by man, but its gradual
disappearance must likewise be partly due to other causes. Formerly it
inhabited every country of Europe and all the larger islands. It still
exists in Corsica and Sardinia, and at an earlier period it was also met
with on the island of Malta. The Red Deer found in Corsica and Sardinia
is smaller than that inhabiting Central Europe, and is by some
authorities regarded as a distinct species, which has been named _Cervus
corsicanus_. But Sir Victor Brooke has pointed out that the antlers of
some of the Scotch Deer agree in every point with those of the Sardinian
species. Indeed, the West European Red Deer altogether is a
small-antlered form, compared with the Eastern one. This character,
however, is only a racial one, and not of spec