Mr. J. E. Harting on Forest Animals. 83 



summer, however, there appeared in Nature-'' a letter on the 

 subject from the head keeper at Bradgate Park, near 

 Leicester, which is very expHcit. He says : " There is not 

 the shghtest doubt of their eating each other's horns. I have 

 myself seen several cases where both brow antlers and the 

 top points have been gnawed off. I have also seen Scotch 

 heads that have been quite spoiled by the tines having 

 been gnawed, which must have been done after the horn 

 had become hard, and whilst the animal was living." 



Before concluding my notice of the red-deer, I may 

 mention a curious circumstance in connection with it. 

 Lyme Park, Cheshire, was celebrated for its fine venison, and 

 formerly the custom prevailed there of collecting the red- 

 deer once a-year — about midsummer or rather earlier — in 

 a herd before the house, and then swimming them through 

 a pool of water, with which the spectacle terminated. 

 This custom of driving deer like ordinary cattle is said to 

 have been perfected by an old park-keeper, Joseph "Watson, 

 who died in 1753, aged 104, after having filled that office 

 for sixty-four years. He was believed to have been in his 

 102nd year when he hunted a buck in a chase of six hours' 

 duration, and is said to have successfully driven twelve 

 brace of stags from Lyme to Windsor Forest. 



This reminds me of an anecdote told by Playford in his 

 " Introduction to Music," to the effect that he once met, 

 on the road near Eoyston, a herd of about twenty deer 

 following a bagpipe and violin ; that while the music 

 played they went forward, and when it ceased they stood 

 still ; and that in this manner they were brought out of 

 Yorkshire to Hampton Court. 



The fallow-deer is so commonly kept in English parks 

 and forests, that its appearance must be familiar to all ; 

 and as I have already pointed out the character of its 

 horns as compared with those of the red-deer, I need not 

 pause here to give any further description of it. 



It is believed to be not indigenous to this country, and 

 the general opinion is that it was introduced by the 

 Komans. The statement in Bell's " British Quadrupeds," 



* Nature, Bth July, 1880. 



