REARING FAWNS. 87 



Individual exertions to continue the red deer are found to be 

 of little use. They seldom breed when deprived of liberty, 

 and restricted to the enclosures of a park. If they do, the 

 offspring degenerates, and the produce is very inferior in size 

 to what it would have been, had the animal remained in its 

 state of natural freedom. Even when taken young in the 

 mountains, to rear the fawns is a difficult and uncertain task. 

 My cousin has for many seasons made the attempt, and generally 

 failed three times for once that he succeeded. Last year one 

 young deer that he procured throve well and grew apace until 

 he was sufficiently stout to go out and graze with the cows. 

 Unfortunately, a visitor brought a savage- tempered greyhound 

 to the Lodge, the dog attacked the fawn, and it died of the 

 worrying it received, before the greyhound could be taken off. 



It is almost impossible to procure the fawns from the 

 mountains in an uninjured state. They generally receive a 

 blow of a stick or stone from the captor, or undergo such 

 rough usage in conveying them to the low-lands, that death 

 commonly ensues. A fine well-grown male was brought to 

 the Lodge last week. For a day or two nothing could be more 

 promising than its appearance. It began, however, on the 

 fourth morning to pine away, and soon after died. We 

 opened it to ascertain, if possible, the cause of its death, and 

 discovered a gangrened wound in the side, evidently produced 

 by a blow. The peasant who brought him declared that he 

 was sound and uninjured ; and to account for his caption swore 

 lustily that he caught the fawn asleep, but it appeared that the 

 rogue had knocked the poor animal over with a stone, and thus 

 produced the inward bruise which terminated fatally. 



It is strange that a creature of such strength and endurance 

 when arrived at maturity, should be so very difficult to bring up. 

 Means were resorted to by my kinsman to have the cow's 

 assimilated to the wild deer's milk, by changing the fawn's 

 nurse to a heathier and poorer pasturage ; a lichen, indigenous 

 to the mountains on which the deer principally feeds, was also 



unfounded. No dog of this description has been for many years in the 

 possession of the noble lord. In his father's time, there were, I believe, 

 some descendants of this splendid stock at Westport House but for 

 years they have been extinct. The present Marquis introduced some 

 double-nosed boar-hounds into the country, which possibly were mistaken 

 for the Irish greyhound, although no animals could be more dissimilar in 

 shape, courage, and docility. 



