DEER. 



241 



very rarely, pure white adult individuals are met with in a 

 wild state. From fifteen to twenty stone may be given as the 

 average weight of an adult British Stag. The largest Deer in 

 England are those of Warnham Court, in Sussex, where a Stag 

 of fourty-four stone has been killed ; while in the same park 

 lived, in 189?, a stag with forty-eight points to its antlers. 



The antlers of the male make their appearance at the age of 

 about seven months, and for the second year are straight and 

 simple ; in the third year they have a* single "brow "-tine 

 immediately above the burr, when the animal is termed a 

 "Brockett." Subsequently the second, or "bez"-tine, and the 

 third or "trez"-tine, frequently termed the royal, are developed; 

 and the complete antler terminates in a cup or crown of three 

 or more points, collectively known as the sur-royals. The term 

 " Royal Hart " is first applied to Stags after the development of 

 the three anterior tines, namely the "brow," "bez," and "trez." 

 The antlers of Red Deer found in the fens, turbaries, and caverns 

 of the British Isles are vastly larger, heavier, and carry a greater 

 number of points on the sur-royals, than do those of any exist- 

 ing Scottish Stag ; this diminution in the size of the antlers 

 being readily accounted for by the restricted area of deer- 

 forests, in-and-in breeding, and the comparatively early age at 

 which most Stags are killed. The finest antlers of a Scotch 

 Stag on record were obtained by Lord Burton in the autumn 

 of 1893, in the forest of Glen Quoich, each having ten points. 

 Even these, however, are nothing to the antlers from the peat 

 and caverns, or, indeed, to some of the recent ones preserved 

 In certain German castles, which may have as irany as twenty 

 points each. In a full-grown Scotch Stag, the weight of the 

 antlers seldom exceeds from twelve to fifteen pounds. 



Distribution.— The Red Deer is a member of a group com- 

 prising several closely allied species or varieties, spread over 

 Northern Europe, Asia, and America, and also represented in 



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