Capreoline type may be traced back to the Cervus Matheroni of the Upper Miocenes.
From the description of Cervus Cauvieri given by Prof. Gervais, I should infer that it is closely allied to, if not identical with, C. cusanus.
Formation.—Pliocenes of Cuyssac, near Le Puy (Haute Loire), Ardé, and Etuaire, near Issoire.
IV. The Axeidæ.
The fossil species grouped together under this head consist of forms closely allied to the round-antlered Deer of the Oriental Region of Mr. Wallace, which possess one brow-tyne and two or three other tynes, such as the Axis, Rusa, Cervus taëvanus, and C. mantchuricus.
A. Cervus perrieri. (Figs. 3 & 4.)
Cervus perrieri, Croizet and Jobert, op. cit. pls. iv., v., vi., viii. figs. 9, 10; Pomel, Cat. Méthod, p. 104.
C. issiodorensis, Pomel, Cat. Méthod, p. 105; Gervais, Paléont. p. 147.
The type specimens of the two forms of Deer from Mont Perrier, described under the name of C. perrieri, are preserved in the Jardin des Plantes at Paris, and are sufficiently perfect to offer a basis for defining one species at least of the Pliocene Cervidæ, which hitherto, owing to the unfortunate accident, before alluded to, of Messrs. Croizet and Jobert's figures of the Cervidæ being without descriptions, have been very imperfectly known.
Definition.—A splendid frontlet bearing two antlers nearly perfect offers the following characters:—Antler (fig. 3) round, grooved, and possessed of four tynes—a brow, B, and a second, D, and two terminal, C, E, which form a fork; pedicle short; burr, A, stout and nearly at right angles to beam; brow-tyne round, given off close to burr, nearly at right angles; beam nearly straight between brow-tyne and second tyne, flattened at basement of latter, thence it sweeps backwards to basement of tyne E, which, with tyne C, constitutes the crown; tynes D, C, and E are round, and form acute angles with the beam, the angle being more open in the case of D than of C and E.
On comparing this antler with that of Cervus issiodorensis (fig. 4) in the same Museum the above definition applies with but slight modifications, which are usually met with in antlers belonging to the same species. In the latter the grooves are not so deep; there is a web, or process of antler, at the interspace between the brow-tyne, B, and the beam; the second tyne, D, is set on at a slightly sharper angle, and the beam forms two gentle curvatures, which are not so strong as in the antler of C. perrieri.
