THE GIANT FALLOW DEER
Cervus Megaceros, Hart
Cervus platyceros altissim us, Molyneux, ‘ Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc.’ vol. xix. p. 485 (1697).
A lee gigantea, Blumenbach, ‘ Beiträge Naturgeschichte,’ French ed. vol. ii. p. 407 (1803).
Cervus islandicus, De Blainville, ‘ Joum. Physique,’ vol. xciv. p. 261 (1822).
Cervus hibem icus, Desmarest, ‘ Mamm.’ p. 446 (1822).
Cervus megaceros, Hart, ‘ A Description o f the Skeleton o f the Fossil Deer o f Ireland ’
(1826), and Rlitimeyer (1883).
Cervus fo s s ilis , Goldfuss, ‘ Nova A c t Acad. Nat. Cuv.’ X . ii. 455 (1827).
Megaceros hibem icus, Owen, ‘ Rep. Brit. Ass.’ p. 237 (1843).
Cervus euryceros, Giebel, ‘ Fauna Vorwelt,’ p. 145 (1847), and Falconer (1868),
Cervus giganteus, Gervais, ‘ Pal. Fran?.’ (1859), and Lydekker (1885), Scharff (1895).
In many respects the Giant Fallow Deer was the finest animal which ever
inhabited Great Britain and Ireland. Standing no less than 6 \ to 7 feet at the
top of the withers, and possessing horns unequalled in size and magnificence by
any living creature, it must have been the noblest example of animal life in the
Pleistocene Age. An account of the skeleton was given by Dr. Molyneux so
long ago as 1697. The discovery of other remains was regarded as a proof that
the moose or elk was formerly common in Ireland, a view which we now know to
be incorrect. Little attention seems to have been devoted to extinct animals during
the eighteenth century, but at the commencement of the nineteenth century
Goldfuss, Cuvier, Blumenbach, De Blainville, and Desmarest described this great
Deer under various synonyms.
The first fairly perfect skeleton of the Giant Fallow Deer was found in the
Isle of Man in the early part of the nineteenth century, and was presented by the
Duke of Atholl to the Edinburgh Museum, and since that date hundreds of skulls
and a few perfect skeletons have been unearthed from the Irish bogs, notably
those of Tullamore, Ballybetagh, and Lough Gur in Limerick. Scores of heads,
some in a very perfect state, have been found in Lough Gur, and from this one
SKULL AND HORNS OF THE GIANT FALLOW DEER, LOUGH GUR, IRELAND.
In the possession of the Duke of Westminster.