54 



DEER. 



would not willingly part with these, yet it is refreshing 

 sometimes to glance back in imagination to those 

 glories of the land which are gone for ever, until some 

 convulsion of the globe shall depress our islands to 

 " the oozy bottom of the deep," and let them rest 

 there during the night and sleep of lands until another 

 convulsion of nature shall again upheave them, like a 

 giant refreshed, and fitted anew for giant plants and 

 gigantic animals. 



II. DEER OF THE EASTERN CONTINENT. 



The two species which we have enumerated, namely, 

 the reindeer and the elk, are the only two which can 

 be considered fully established as inhabiting both the 

 eastern continent and the western ; and though the elk 

 inhabits more southerly and in richer pastures than 

 the reindeer, yet it is sufficiently far in the north for 

 allowing the supposition that it may have passed from 

 continent to continent upon the ice. Those which 

 remain to be considered are the deer of temperate 

 and of warm countries, which inhabit too far to the 

 south for interchanging between the continents ; and 

 though there are exceptions as regards particular 

 places, which are explainable by the different charac- 

 ters of those places, yet we may in general say that 

 the size of the animals, and especially the develop- 

 ment of the horns, diminish as we approach the 

 southern limit. 



In most countries, however, which are adapted to 

 the race, and from which that race has not been ex- 

 terminated by natural or artificial means, we may say 

 that there are in general three species of deer, one 

 affecting more the forests, another the open savannahs 

 or rich plains, and the third the more elevated and 

 airy wastes. We may thus style them according to 

 their pastures forest deer, field deer, and hill deer. 

 We have types of all the three in this country, though 

 it is possible that the field deer, the one with which 

 we are most familiar, but which partakes not of the 

 majesty of him of the forest, or of the airy beauty of 

 the mountaineer, may be an importation. We shall 

 first notice these three in their order, and then briefly 

 mention the foreign varieties. 



THE STAG (Cervus ekiphus). This is the deer par 

 excellence in all works on " the noble art of venerie," 

 and in all allusions to the bold foresters of merry 

 England. It is the red deer, and the male is called a 

 hart, and the female a hind. 



The characters are, the horns round in their section, 

 furnished with three antlers on each beam, turned to 

 the front, and curved a little upwards ; then the top 

 of the beam terminates in a number of snag?, all at 

 nearly the same elevation, and increasing in number 

 with the age of the animal. In summer the general 

 colour is yellowish brown, with a black bar across the 

 shoulders, and a row of pale yellow spots on each 

 side. In winter the colour changes to a uniform red- 

 dish brown; but the hinder part of the rump, the tail, 

 and a small portion of the feet above the hoofs (which 

 we term the fesses), are always of a pale yellow. 

 Both sexes have canine teeth, which are rather long, 

 and bent in the male, but the female has no horns. 

 The young fawns are of a rich yellowish brown, dap- 

 pled with white spots ; and it is from their ground 

 colour that dyers give the name of fawn to a peculiar 

 shade of colour, intermediate between brown and 

 yellow. The colour deepens much with age ; so that 

 in winter the old stags are nearly black ; but they 

 retain the mark on the crupper and fesses. 



The stag is by much the largest of European deer, 



and the probability is, that the large horns above 

 alluded to have belonged to the very species which is 

 still met with in some parts of our own country, and 

 more abundantly on the continent of Europe, where 

 forests are far more extensive, and have been less dis- 

 turbed. The rutting time of the stag is in September, 

 the young one being driven off by the mothers in 

 August, and during this season the males are in such 



Stag or Red Deer 



a state of excitement, that it is not only highly dan- 

 gerous to approach them, but the}' sometimes ill-treat 

 and even kill the females. The hind goes a few days 

 more than eight months with young, and drops her 

 single fawn, for she has rarely two, in the month of 

 May. It used to be fabled, that the stag wa remark- 

 able for length of life ; but it does not appear that it 

 lasts longer than about twenty years. It is found less 

 or more in all places of Europe, where there is cover 

 adapted for it, except in the extreme north and in very 

 hot places near the sea. It is also met with in western 

 Asia, in some of the mountainous islands of the Medi- 

 terranean, and on the slopes of the mountains of Atlas 

 in northern Africa, where it appears to have been im- 

 ported, probably by the Romans. But it has degene- 

 rated in that part of the world : it is smaller in size, 

 more brown in the colour, and the horns terminate in 

 forks, instead of the numerous snags which they dis- 

 play in colder countries. In these respects if approxi- 

 mates the characters of the Indian deer ; and would 

 lead one to conclude that, the stag is very general on 

 the eastern continent, only in the course of years it 

 has been much modified by difference of climate. 



We must not infer from the vast number of stag:s'- 

 horns which are found in a fossil state, that there has 

 been an equal number of stags ; for, as they come to 

 their full head at five years old, each furnishes fifteen 

 sets of horns, if it lives to complete its twentieth year ; 

 and, therefore, making reasonable allowances for casu- 

 alties, we may say that there are probably ten times 

 as many sets of horns as there have been stags. 



