FALLOW DEER 91 



estimation, to afford genuine pleasure to the naturalist. 

 The first fawns are almost invariably dropped on 16th June. 

 The number of Fallow Deer in the Hopetoun park at 

 present is only 140; fifteen years ago they numbered 

 fully 250. In the Biel park there are between 200 and 

 300, and I understand the Dalmahoy park contains about 

 the same number. These herds, which contain both spotted 

 and uniformly dark animals, of course serve a useful as 

 well as an ornamental purpose, and furnish their owners 

 and the game-dealers with a constant supply of excellent 

 venison. 



In 1889 I observed Fallow Deer in Eshielshope, near 

 Peebles, on the property of Sir John Hay, Bart. They 

 were introduced, I am told, forty-two years ago, and at 

 one time numbered nearly two hundred, but lately they 

 have been killed down owing to their destroying young 

 trees and the adjoining farm crops, and now only about a 

 dozen remain. 



So far as I am aware, the date of the introduction of the 

 Fallow Deer into the district is not known. We have 

 positive knowledge of it, however, as far back as 1283, for 

 which year the accounts of the king's chamberlain record, 

 among other expenses connected with the royal park at 

 Stirling, an allowance for mowing and carrying hay and 

 litter for the use of the Fallow Deer in winter (Cosmo 

 Innes's " Scotland in the Middle Ages," p. 125). From an 

 observation made by Walker in his "Mammalia Scotica," 

 which is supposed to have been written between 1764 and 

 1774, it appears that Fallow Deer have been kept in 

 Hopetoun park for at least a couple of centuries. The white 

 and the black varieties, he tells us, had existed there for 

 sixty years without intermingling, until the mottled form 

 was introduced, from which time all three forms brought 



