century it was so common that the traveller Tavernier purchased 7673 musk "pods" in one journey, or, according to Buffon, 1663. The tusks, which recall those of Hydropotes, to which Moschus is not nearly allied, and of Tragulus, with which it has of course still less connexion, are said to be used for the digging up of roots. Its feet, in relation to its mountain-ranging habits, are very mobile.
Extinct Species of Deer.—It has been already mentioned that the most primitive kinds of Deer had no horns at all, resembling in this the modern Moschus and Hydropotes, and that with lapse of time went hand in hand an increasing complexity of antler; the facts of palaeontology harmonising in the most striking manner with the facts of individual development from year to year. The oldest forms seem to be more nearly akin to the living Muntjacs, and their remains occur in the lowest Miocene beds of both Europe and America. At present the group is confined to the warmer parts of Asia and some of the islands belonging to that continent.
One of the oldest types is Amphitragulus. This genus, which consists of several species, inhabited Europe, and differed from living Muntjacs in being totally hornless in both sexes; the skull had no lachrymal fossa or deficient lateral ossification.
Nearly allied is Dremotherium of similar age and range.
The Middle Miocene has furnished the remains of the genus Dicroceras. This is the earliest Deer in which horns have been found. The horns are, as the name of the genus implies, bifid, and have, like those of the living Muntjac, a very long pedicel. This is also a European genus like the last. From this period we come across true Deer, which commence in the Upper Miocene and have branched horns. Moreover they belong, at least for the most part, to the existing genera. One of the most remarkable forms is Cervus sedgwicki (sometimes placed in a separate genus, Polycladus) from the Forest Bed of Norfolk and from the Upper Pliocene of the Val d'Arno. This creature was remarkable for its multitudinously-branched antlers. These end in no less than twelve points. No Deer exists or has existed in which the horns are so completely branched. They are like those of a Red Deer exaggerated.
Fam. 7. Giraffidae.—Undoubtedly the type of a distinct family, Giraffidae, is the genus Giraffa. It is characterised by
