Deer, as well as my study of the history of the domestic fowl,[1] were occasioned by an antiquarian discovery at Olmütz. There, in the same stratum with the skull of the domestic fowl, and amongst weapons and utensils of the early Bronze Age, was found a piece of horn, which from its flatness and from the total absence of rugosities and tubercles (runzeln und perlen), I was at once inclined to consider a fractured portion of the horn of a Fallow Deer. Careful comparison with the horn of the Red Deer, Reindeer, Elk, and Irish Elk, in different museums, particularly those of Stuttgardt and Munich, and in numerous private collections, confirmed my opinion. Reliable authorities on the Cervidæ agreed with me, although a still greater authority, Professor Rütimeyer of Basle, suggested the possibility of this fragment from Olmütz having belonged to a Red Deer.
Cuvier mentions fossil horns of the Fallow Deer, and speaks of "bois assez semblables à ceux du Daim, mais d'une très grande taille, trouvés dans la vallée de la Somme et en Allemagne."[2] He has also figured two pieces of horn from Abbeville, which are certainly taken from the true Fallow Deer. Moreover, he has given a copy of a drawing sent to him by Autenrieth:—"D'un crâne et d'un merrain y adhèrent, déposés au cabinet de Stuttgardt; pièces que ce savant rapportait au cerf à bois gigantesques, mais qui me paraissent plutôt se devoir rapporter à ce Daim à cause de la longueur de la partie cylindrique."[3] Subsequently similar remains of horn were dug up in Gergovia, near Clermont, in the Departement of Puy-de-Dôme, and at Polignac, near Puy, in the Departement of Haute-Loire, which were described by F. Robert as those of Cervus dama polignacus; by Pomel as C. somonensis and C. Roberti; and by Gervais as C. somonensis, with an original figure by Desmarest. Gervais describes them as "des bois de Daims qui indiquent une espèce ou variété bien plus grande que celle dont il a été question ci-dessus" (namely, C. dama); and that these horns were "d'un tiers a moins plus grande que ceux du Daims ordinaire."[4]
Georg Jäger, in his "Review of the Fossil Mammalia of Wurtemburg,"[5] refers to numerous discoveries of the remains of Fallow
