322 BRITISH MAMMALS 



buttocks where the wide patch begins, it darkens almost to black, 

 making an effective contrast with the great white or yellow patch 

 on the rump. For the summer half of the year the red deer, in male 

 and female, is really red over the greater part of the body ; that 

 is to say, the coat (except on the limbs, which remain umber- 

 brown ; on the belly, which is cream-colour; and on the neck and 

 cheeks, where there is a good deal of grey) assumes almost a red- 

 gold in healthy animals. On the back this gold deepens into pur- 

 plish-black, and this purple element in the coat is apparent often 

 in patches amongst the red-brown, and is due to the fact that the 

 lower half of the coarse hairs of the red deer's coat is purplish- 

 gray in colour. The neck, which is heavily maned on the under 

 side and round the jaws in the male, and sometimes in the hind, 

 is gray or umber on its under side and slightly more reddish or 

 blackish over the nape. The head of the stag is rather brightly 

 coloured in the summer-time. The forehead is almost red-gold, 

 except where the purple end of the hair shows or where the red- 

 gold is flecked with glossy black. The nose is blackish, and the 

 hair, being very glossy, takes a blue or purple tinge according to 

 the light. The cheeks are markedly gray. There is a light 

 patch round the lower eyelids, and the lips and chin are whitish. 

 At the angle of the lower jaw there is that characteristic black 

 patch that one sees in so many deer. The nostrils and muffle 

 are naked, wet, and black. The outside and front of the fore 

 limbs is sometimes so dark a brown as to be almost black, 

 especially near the feet. In the summer-time, perhaps, the hinds 

 are even redder in colour than the stag. There are, of course, 

 albino red deer, as there are colourless examples of so many other 

 beasts and birds. But in Ireland a somewhat persistent variety 

 seems to have been naturally developed in the white-faced deer 

 characteristic of Kerry. In these there is a white blaze between 

 the horns, down the forehead, and ridge of the nose. The young 

 of the red deer are profusely and distinctly spotted with white, 

 the distribution of the spots being very like that which prevails 

 in the axis deer. The neck in the young is slightly maned 

 down the throat, and is without spots. 



