RED-DEER. 319 



charge of buckshot but grazed the forehead, un- 

 happily destroying the remaining eye, and no more. 

 The blind and terrified animal for one instant 

 paused in its sudden darkness, the next dashed 

 madly through the fog. Weeks after, his grand 

 antlers and bleached skeleton were found at the foot 

 of a precipice hard by, the foxes and eagles having 

 alone benefited by his cruel death. So miserably 

 perished probably the last of his line in Mayo.* 



A few years previous to this incident a stag and 

 two hinds established themselves on the property of 

 a large proprietor near Belmullet, who took great 

 pride in his visitors, and carefully protected them, 

 as did the neighbouring gentry. But their hopes 

 of reviving these animals were rudely dispelled. 

 A large deep drain was in course of construction 

 through the bog near, and the deer were one day 

 trapped in a corner by the labourers engaged in 

 cutting it. The stag and hinds, in attempting to 

 leap the excavation as a means of escape, fell in, 

 and were, to the regret of all interested, cruelly 

 mobbed to death with fork and spade ! 



The late Sir A. Knox-Gore reported some years 

 since that he had seen the slot of a Red-deer hind 

 and fawn at Currawn, co. Mayo, in 1852. 



In a letter which I lately received from Mr. 

 R. Glascott Symes, to whom I have already re- 

 ferred, he says : " An idea has gone abroad that 

 they (the Red-deer) are not extinct^/, but this is 

 fallacious ; the animals seen now are those which 



* I have seen a seal made from a tine of one of the antlers and 

 mounted in silver, with an inscription recording the death of this 



animal. 



