DEER. 



2.07 



the deer, if all together, have a range of not much 

 leys tliun 100,000 acres of hill, and on this there are 

 certainly nor. fewer altogether than 7000 or 8000 

 ht-ad, ofd and young, the greater part of which are 

 the property of the Duke of Athol ; and the great 

 hunts, or rather slaughters, most frequently take 

 place in Glen Tilt, though the more laborious opera- 

 tion of "deer-stalking" is pursued in other places. 

 On the great hunts, they are driven by a circuit of 

 people, who bring them to a pass or narrow, whore 

 the marksmen are posted, so that they can select and 

 make sure of their victims. This is not a very manly 

 sport, but it is very efficient " pot" hunting ; and the 

 nature of the ground renders it impossible to adopt 

 any more sportsman-like mode. 



It is understood that, from the care bestowed upon 

 them by all the proprietors, red deer are becoming 

 more numerous on those mountains ; and though the 

 hill is quite open, and the keepers are but few, there 

 is comparatively little poaching ; and, indeed, it is 

 rendered unnecessary, because the deer are always 

 straying so far out upon the spurs of the hills, that 

 any one who is so inclined may occasionally have a 

 shot ; and to attempt shooting deer on the open 

 Grampians, as a matter of profit, is nearly out of the ; 

 question. 



When poaching is attempted, it is generally in the 

 winter, or in the latter part of the autumn, which 

 usually has all the horrors of a very severe winter in 

 those exposed and upland places ; and there have 

 been in--tani'< -s in which adventurers, who went to 

 spend the night on the hill for the purpose of 

 Staining deer illegally, have had the most terrible 

 justice executed upon them by the storm. The snow 

 storms on those mountains nearly rival in violence the 

 " temporales" of the Andes : the snow makes the air 

 as dark as midnight ; and the wind drives with the 

 voice of thunder among the crags, and sweeps the 

 waste with the force of hurricanes, so that men are 

 rolled before it like chart, hurled over some pre- 

 cipice, and lost, until the crow and the raren point 

 out the place of their bones in the ensuing summer ; 

 tor the snow in which they are buried in great part 

 preserves their bodies to become food for these dark 

 and dusky-coated scavengers of the desert. 



Such is the situation and character of the most 

 extensive forest of red-deer which now occurs in this 

 country. In England there are remains in some of 

 the royal forests, and perhaps in a few other places, 

 but they are comparatively few, and do not stamp the 

 principal character upon the locality as they do on 

 thr> Grampians. 



FALLOW-DEER (Cervus dama). This species is 

 smaller, feebler, and more tame and common-place in 

 all its characters than the stag. There are no canine 

 teeth in either sex. The male only has horns, which 

 are round in their section, with two pointed antlers, 

 and the summit ; almated lengthways. The colours are 

 variable, but they are in general brown, dappled with 

 white. The horns of the male fallow-deer, or buck, 

 are divergent, terminated above by a flattened longi- 

 tudinal palm, toothed with what are termed advancers ; 

 trie base of the beam round, with basal and median, 

 or brow and bezantlers, pointing forward. It has no 

 canine teeth, and the nose is terminated by a muzzle. 

 In size it is inferior to the common stag. In summer 

 both sexes have the back, flanks, and thighs, of a 

 fulvous-brown colour, diversified with numerous white 

 pots. In winter these parts are wholly brown ; the 

 NAT. HIST. VOL. II. 



buttocks are always white, with a black streak on 

 each side ; the tail is longer than in the stag, reaching 

 to the houghs, black above, and white below ; a dark 

 line passes along the back ; the belly, inside of the 

 limbs, and under the throat, white ; the head, neck, 

 and outside of the legs, reddish grey. 



! allow 



The male of the fallow-deer is usually called a 

 buck, the female a doe, and the young a fawn. The 

 buck fawn has no appearance of horns the first year, 

 but they come up in simple snags the second, at 

 which time it is a pricket. The third year there are 

 two branches, and the palm begins to be formed on 

 the top of the beam ; but it is not properly formed 

 till the fifth year, when the animal becomes a buck of 

 the first head, which answers to the stag of the former 

 species. The horns have now attained their prin- 

 cipal shape, except on the margins of the beam, 

 where they every year acquire additional snags, 

 which are called spillers, or advancers, but they con- 

 tinue to increase in size. As is the case with the 

 stag, they drop their horns in the spring, and both 

 that operation and the rutting conies on about two 

 weeks later. The period of gestation in the doe is 

 eight months ; she becomes fertile the second year, 

 and ceases to be so about the fifteenth. The fawns, 

 at a dropping, are one, two, or three, according to 

 circumstances. 



Fallow deer are gregarious ; but the bucks live 

 apart except during the rutting time, and in winter, 

 when most gregarious animals live indiscriminately. 

 Where the herd is large, it is, however, generally 

 divided into packs, each under the guidance of the 

 oldest or most powerful buck. This species is so well, 

 known as the common park deer of Britain, that a 

 minute description of it is not necessary. It is not 

 known, and probably never was known in a totally 

 wild state in this country ; and this in part accounts 

 for the diversity of colour we meet with. In the 

 south of Europe it grows to a much larger size than 

 with us ; and hence it has been supposed that it is 

 native there ; but the point is not fully ascertained, 

 and it may be an importation from the west of At;ia. 

 In the central countries of Europe, wild ones are fevf, 

 and there are none to the northward of the Carpa- 

 thian mountains. But in all parts of Europe, where 

 there are extensive parks, there are fallow deer in a 

 R 



