93 2 THE UNGULATES, OR HOOFED MAMMALS 



five inches. A Devonshire stag with antlers of over thirty-eight inches is on 



record. 



The red deer has a wide distribution in the temperate regions of 

 Distribution Europe and Asia> but its eastward extension in the latter continent is not 

 yet fully ascertained. Formerly, it was probably found throughout the forest re- 

 gions of Central Europe, but it has now been exterminated in many districts. In 

 Scandinavia, it is found only in a few forests in Sweden, and in some of the Norwe- 

 gian islands! It also remains in the larger forests of France and Germany, while it 

 is more abundant in Hungary, Servia, Transylvania, Poland, and the Danubian 

 States. In parts of Greece, Italy, and Spain, as well as the islands of Corsica and 

 Sardinia, it is less plentifully represented. In the British Islands it is only in the 

 Scottish Highlands to the north of the Clyde and the Forth that wild red deer are 

 met with abundantly, and then only by the aid of protection. They are, however, 

 also found on the moors of Devon and Somerset, in certain districts of Ireland, such 

 as Killarney and Connemara, as well as in the Hebrides. As late as the reign of 

 Queen Anne, wild deer were, however, common in Wolmer forest, Hampshire, 

 while a few lingered in Epping forest till the early part of the present century. 



In European Russia the red deer is reported so be restricted to the Caucasus. 

 Eastward a large deer ranges through Siberia to Amurland and Northern China, 

 which is probably only a variety of this species, although on account of the larger size 

 of .the light colored patch on the buttocks, it has been regarded as a distinct form 

 under the name of C. xanthopygus. The red deer is again met with in Asia Minor, 

 where it attains large dimensions, but it does not appear to enter Persia, or at least 

 only infringes on the western borders of that country. The so-called Barbary deer 

 of Morocco and Algiers, now regarded merely as a variety of the present species, is 

 distinguished by the frequent absence of the bez-tine of the antlers. 



Fossil remains of the red deer are found abundantly in the caverns and super- 

 ficial deposits of the greater part of Europe, these fossil antlers being far larger than 

 those of any modern representatives of the species, some of them measuring upward 

 of forty inches in length. 



L,ike most of the tribe, the red deer is gregarious, but, except during 

 the pairing season, the full-grown stags remain apart from the other 

 members of the herd, and generally frequent higher ground. On the Continent this 

 species is almost exclusively a forest dweller, remaining concealed during the day in 

 the thickest cover, and only venturing out to feed in the open glades or adjacent 

 cultivated lands with the falling shades of the evening. On the other hand, the 

 Scottish red deer inhabits the open hills, and has for its only concealment the inter- 

 vening glens and valleys. 



The pairing season commences in the latter part of September or beginning of 

 October, and lasts for about three weeks, during which period the venison is rank 

 and unfit for table. "At this season," writes Mr. Scrope, " the harts swell in their 

 necks, have a ruff of long wiry hair about them, and are drawn up in their bodies 

 like greyhounds. They now roll restlessly in the peat pools till they become almost 

 black with mire, and feed chiefly on the light colored moss that grows on the round 

 tops of the hills, so that they do not differ so entirely from the reindeer in their food 



