Red Deer 



21 I 



maximum degree of complexity ; but few deer at the present day are 

 found witli antlers so fine or so numerously pointed as those which are 

 from time to time dug up in the peat and other superficial deposits of the 

 British Islands and the Continent, or even as many of those carried by 

 stags killed two or three centuries ago on the Continent. About 4 feet at 



Fig. 46. — Red Deer Antlers, showing splitting on the right side. In the Collection ot 



Viscount Powcrscourt. 



the withers is the height attained at the present day by wild red deer 

 ot the typical race in Western Europe. A stag killed by Lord Tweed- 

 mouth in the autumn of 1880 weighed 21 stone 9 lbs. when cleaned. 

 Red deer have been introduced into New Zealand, where they thrive well. 

 Abnormalities are by no means uncommon in red deer antlers, some ot 

 these being ot very remarkable types. In the pair shown in Fig. 46, 

 which were bought in Paris by Viscount Powerscourt in the year 1863, 



