i6 THE RED DEER OF EXMOOR. 



visitor so anxious to see the stag is a deeply-rooted 

 disbelief in the fact of his being actually wild. Only 

 a few years ago the writer heard a sportsman who 

 had enjoyed a few days > with the staghounds 

 questioned on this point. His reply was amusing : 

 " Oh, well, they are not what you would really call 

 wild''^ — with an emphasis — "not like they are in 

 Scotland ; they keep them in a park or place of that 

 kind, and turn a few out at a time as they are 

 wanted." A suggestion that they were really wild 

 was met with the politest incredulity. 



Yet the red deer with his neighbours on Exmoor, 

 the horse, the badger, the fox, the otter, and the 

 hare are the oldest indigenous animals in England, 

 and their bones are found plentifully in the caves of 

 the Mendip Hills along with those of the elephant, 

 the cave lion, the woolly rhinoceros, and the 

 hyaena. 



The red deer at one time undoubtedly was 

 found all over the United Kingdom, and the fine 

 herds which exist to-day in Windsor, Badminton, 

 and other parks are merel)/ the descendants of wild 

 deer which have been enclosed. In some parts of 

 Westmorland, as well as in the New Forest, 

 there are, or recently were, a few remaining 

 specimens, while on Dartmoor their extinction is 

 quite recent. 



So much has been written by authors, ancient and 

 modern, on the natural history of the red deer, and 

 so faithfully and charmingly has the story of his life 



