ific value. In the
pleistocene deposits of Eastern and Central Europe, a very
large-antlered race has been discovered, and identified by Professor
Nehring with _Cervus canadensis_--the Canadian Red Deer. Tcherski, the
Siberian traveller, believed that _Cervus canadensis_ was identical
with, or a variety of, the Asiatic species of Deer, _Cervus
eustephanus_, _Cervus xanthopygus_, and _Cervus maral_. Some
authorities--and to these belong Mr. Lydekker--think that we ought
perhaps to regard the whole number of Red Deer-like forms as local
varieties of one widely-spread species. Besides the deer already
referred to, the following belong to this same group:--_Cervus
cashmirianus_, _Cervus affinis_, _Cervus Roosvelti_, from North America,
and the North African _Cervus barbarus_.

The question now is, where have these varieties originated? Or, if we go
to the root of the matter, where is the original home of their
ancestors? Considering that so many _Cervidae_ have been found in French
and English pliocene deposits, and that remains of the Red Deer occur
not only in the English Forest-Bed, but have been found associated with
those of the Pigmy Hippopotamus in Malta, it would only be reasonable to
suppose that the genus _Cervus_ had originated in Europe. It might also
be argued with equal force that the Red Deer had its birthplace in our
continent. But when we carefully study its present range this verdict
cannot be accepted. The view of the Asiatic origin of the Red Deer, so
ably maintained by Koeppen, corresponds far better with its present
distribution, especially if we look upon the Asiatic, North American,
and North African forms as varieties of the same species.

If the Red Deer were of European origin, it must have come into
existence at a time when Malta was part of the mainland, when North
Africa and the British Islands were connected with the continent of
Europe, and of course before the deposition of the Forest-Bed. Such
land-connections existed probably during the Pliocene Epoch. Migrants
would have wandered from Europe into Asia. These would have developed
into larger races, which again furnished emigrants for North America.
The latter crossed by the old land-connection which once joined America
and Asia at Behring's Straits. During pleistocene times the large
Siberian race would now have re-migrated to the home of its ancestors in
Europe, for we find the remains only in Central and Eastern Europe,
indicating that