Fallow Deer 241 



THE FALLOW DEER 



[Cervi/s (lima) 

 (Plate IV. Fig. 5) 



By almost all who have written upon the subject, the beautiful fallow 

 deer of our parks is regarded as having been probably introduced into 

 Britain ; Mr. J. E. Millais, in his British Deer and their Horns, even going 

 so far as to say that it is " undoubtedly an introduction." Very generally 

 the introduction is attributed to the Romans ; and the circumstance that 

 antlers or other remains of this species appear to be unknown in the peat 

 of the British fens and bogs is undoubtedly in favour of those who regard 

 it as of foreign origin. On the other hand, as stated in Deer of All hands, 

 there is in the British Museum a pair of fallow deer antlers trom Clacton, 

 in Essex, which are reported to have been obtained from a deposit of the 

 polished stone implement period ; and if this be their true age, there is a 

 strong probability that the date of the introduction of the tallow deer was 

 long antecedent to the Roman occupation of Britain, it indeed the animal 

 was not actually indigenous. It seems very unlikely that this particular 

 pair of antlers was imported by the ancient inhabitants of East Anglia in 

 neolithic times. Moreover, the fact that remains of a species ot tallow 

 deer (C. hrowni) occur not uncommonly in certain superficial deposits on 

 the Essex coast tends in some degree to support the view that the living 

 form may be indigenous to the British Isles. 



Whatever may be the truth in regard to this point, the tallow deer 



exists as a truly wild species, within the area treated of in this book, only 



in Greece, Spain, Portugal, Anatolia, Rhodes, Sardinia, certain parts of 



Asia Minor, and Northern Palestine. In addition to the British Islands, it 



is met with as a semi-domesticated animal in Italy and the south ot Sweden. 



2 I 



