152 



THE COMMON FALLOW-DEER. 



Dama vulgaris. GESNER. 

 PLATE VII. 



Dama vulgaris, Gesner Cervus Dama, Auctorum. Fal- 

 low-Deer of Pennant, Shaw, Bewick, S[c. 



THIS beautiful and common adornment of our 

 English parks is now scarcely to be met with in a 

 truly wild state. There are a few places where the 

 enclosures have, through time, been broken down, 

 and the deer run at large without food or shelter in 

 winter, and from thence they have occasionally 

 strayed into such parts near as are wild, extensive, 

 and wooded. They are said to be found wild in 

 Moldavia and Lithuania ; but, on the Continent, ge- 

 nerally are kept in parks as in England. In the olden 

 time, they were royal property, extensive chaces or 

 forests were devoted to them alone, and property of 

 all kinds disregarded, to make room for the keeping 

 up and pursuit of those animals. With the advance 

 of civilization and agriculture, less bounds were al- 

 lotted to them, and, as always happens, the wild 

 animals gave way to cultivation. The parks where 



