THE YOUNG DEER 



FEW would hesitate to answer with an emphatic 

 " Yes " the question whether the fear of man in 

 the red-deer is innate. It is certainly in full 

 operation at a very early age, and, of course, 

 through life is a most powerful factor in the 

 animal's conduct. The deer, where it is not made 

 familiar with much artificial provisioning, is cease- 

 lessly vigilant, and its vigilance is wholly directed 

 at man and his companion the dog for no other 

 animal survives in this country which it has any 

 occasion to dread. Altogether this fear of man, 

 with the elaborate strategy that serves it, has the 

 appearance of an instinct engraven on the deepest 

 nerve tissue, innate in the strictest sense of the 

 word. 



Yet it is doubtful if the fear of man in the red- 

 deer is any more innate than in those birds of 

 newly discovered oceanic islands, the description 

 of whose conduct on first acquaintance makes such 

 entertaining reading in more than one of Darwin's 

 books, particularly in the " Voyage of the Beagle." 

 During June I had an opportunity of making some 

 observations bearing on the subject. While 

 holidaying in a northern deer forest I read Scrope's 

 " Deer-stalking in the Scottish Highlands," and 



