an invasion of the Red Deer from Asia must then have
taken place.

Against this view of the European origin of the Red Deer, it may be
urged that deer are known from Indian as well as from European pliocene
deposits, and that a migration could have taken place from the Oriental
Region to Europe just as easily as from the latter to Asia. The majority
of the species of the genus _Cervus_ (in a wide sense), moreover, are
Asiatic, ranging to Borneo, Sumatra, and the Philippine Islands, all of
which islands have been separated from the mainland for a considerable
time. Finally, the original home of a species, as we have learned,
generally corresponds with the centre of its geographical range, and
this lies in the case of the Red Deer in Central Asia.

One of the highest authorities on the deer family, Sir Victor Brooke,
also was of opinion that the _Cervidae_ originated in Asia, and from
there spread east and west. Of the two divisions into which true deer
are divided, viz., the _Plesiometacarpalia_ and the _Telemetacarpalia_,
the former is almost confined to the Old and the latter to the New
World. The only North American species belonging to the first division
is the Canadian Red Deer, which fact clearly indicates its recent
immigration to that continent.

There were probably two distinct migrations of the Red Deer into Europe.
An older one coming from Asia Minor into Greece, which stocked Sardinia,
Corsica, Malta, and North Africa in the first place, when these were
still connected with one another. This same migration likewise affected
western continental Europe, the Irish Red Deer being probably the
descendant of this very ancient stock. The latter entered the island
when it was still part of the Continent. The later migration of a larger
form came from Siberia and spread mainly over Eastern and Central
Europe, but it appears that it also reached England, although there is
no evidence of any of these Siberian deer having ever inhabited Ireland.

The range of this deer, therefore, to some extent corresponds to that
of another described on p. 153. We found then that two races of Reindeer
had migrated to the British Islands--one from the Arctic Regions, and
the other from Siberia, but that only the former had reached Ireland.

The so-called Irish Elk (_Cervus giganteus_) has been referred to the
Oriental migration, but, as stated below, it has some claims to be
regarded as a European. Unfortunately it is now extinct;