90 UNGULATA 



FALLOW DEER. 

 CERVUS DAMA L. 



Seeing the Fallow Deer is not an indigenous animal in the 

 country, and exists only in a semi-domesticated state in 

 parks specially enclosed for its reception, its right to a place 

 in this memoir may be questioned. With Bell's "British 

 Quadrupeds" as a precedent, the usual practice, however, has 

 heen to include it in local faunal lists, and I see no reason 

 to depart from that rule in the present instance. After 

 all, it is practically as much entitled to a place in our fauna 

 as the pheasant, and its claims to that distinction are 

 certainly quite as good as those of the Canada goose or the 

 mute swan. 



Without attempting to give a list of the deer-parks in 

 the district, I may mention the following, with which I am 

 personally familiar, namely : the Duke of Buccleuch's park 

 at Dalkeith, and the Earl of Morton's at Dalmahoy, both in 

 Midlothian ; the Earl of Hopetoun's, at Hopetoun House, 

 Linlithgowshire ; and Mrs Hamilton- Ogilvy's, at Biel, in 

 East Lothian. 



The regulation strength of the Dalkeith herd is 300, and 

 at the present time it contains rather over than under that 

 number. Their presence adds another to the many charms 

 of that fine park, and I know few more enjoyable sights than 

 to see them bounding through the tall brackens in the depths 

 of the old oak-wood. Mr Chouler, the Duke's gamekeeper, 

 tells me the bucks begin with great regularity to " bellow " 

 on or about the 9th of October, and by the middle of the 

 month they may be heard grunting in all directions. During 

 still moonlight nights the park then resounds with their 

 hoarse voices, the general effect being sufficiently wild, in my 



