COMMON FALLOW-DEER. 153 



deer are now kept are in a manner limibed chaces 

 or forests ; several thousand acres being sometimes 

 enclosed, embracing a variety of hill and dale, fo- 

 rest timber, water and cover, and stocked in addi- 

 tion with a variety of other game. Here, however, 

 they are attended to in winter, and only such a 

 number retained as can be sufficiently fed. Six 

 thousand head of fallow-deer have been kept in one 

 of these enclosures, and from three thousand to fif- 

 teen hundred is now common in most of the larger 

 English parks. The flesh as venison is very highly 

 esteemed, and the skins furnish a strong, pleasant, 

 and durable leather. 



The most common colour of this animal in sum- 

 mer is of a yellowish-brown, marked with numerous 

 pale spots. The buttocks are always white, and a 

 dark line passes along the back. The under parts 

 and insides of the legs are white. It varies to white, 

 and there is a constant dark brown variety, the fawns 

 of which are not even spotted. 



Three fossil animals belonging to this group havfe 

 been enumerated, but two of these are thought by 

 some to be identical. These are the Scanian Fal- 

 low-Deer, * dug out of peat at Svedala, in Scania ; 

 and the Fallow-Deer of Abbeville.f Both are larger 

 than the common species ; but by far the moat re- 

 markable is the animal known under the name of 



* Cervus (Dama) paleodoma. f Cervus (Dama) 1<K 

 monensis. 



