May, 1901. IO 1 



IRISH RED DEER. 



BY A. I.OFTUS OTWAV, B.A. 

 [Read before the Dublin Naturalists' Field Club, iSth December, 1900.] 



At the present day, though Red Deer exist in the British 

 Islands in their native haunts, they only do so under strict 

 preservation, and the race tends to be modified by the influence 

 of man in some respects. Where shootings are let by the year, 

 as they often are in Scotland, the lessee naturally desires to 

 get the best value for his money, or, in other words, to secure 

 the finest heads, and accordingly he endeavours to kill the 

 largest stags. A gentleman, who had taken a shooting in 

 Scotland for a year, proceeded to kill off the animals with the 

 finest antlers, without caring for the future state of the pre- 

 serve. The following year, on his inquiring for a shooting of 

 a London agent, the very estate which he had taken the 3'ear 

 before was offered to him, and was highly recommended by 

 the agent ; but the client immediately declined to take what 

 he had shot over the previous season, saying that he was 

 tolerably certain that no heads worth having were left there. 

 Such a practice upsets the natural rule of " the survival of the 

 fittest," according to which those members of a herd that were 

 most formidably armed had the best chance of holding their 

 own and of perpetuating their kind ; the race thus tended to 

 become finer and better equipped. Under the present 

 artificial conditions the reverse is the case, as it is the inferior 

 individuals which are spared ; and it is onl} r by introducing 

 new blood that the race is saved from deterioration. Owners of 

 deer-forests and parks are bringing in Wapiti and other allies 

 of the Red Deer in the hope of improving the native breed, 

 and, it is said, in some cases, with considerable success. 



This leads to the consideration of the importance of the 

 antlers in determining the character of the race. The fights 

 between Red Deer are of a very determined and sanguinary 

 character. Combatant stags retire to a distance of twenty 

 or thirty yards, and then with lowered heads charge each other 

 with intense fury, their antlers meeting with a crash. They then 

 proceed to wrestle, each endeavouring to assail his adversary 



