DEER. 



247 



troduced into Britain is not definitely known, although it is 

 commonly reputed to have been brought by the Romans from' 

 the Mediterranean countries. The dark variety was long 

 considered to have been imported from Norway by James the 

 First, but Mr. Harting has shown that it existed here long before 

 his time ; while equally erroneous is the theory that the ordinary 

 spotted form (which used to be known by the name of Mentl) 

 was imported from Manilla. Kept in a more or less com- 

 pletely domesticated state in large numbers of British parks, 

 Fallow Deer are found in an almost wild condition in the 

 New Forest and Epping Forest ; those in the latter being 

 characterised by the narrow palmation of their antlers. There 

 is also a small remnant of a nearly wild herd in Rockingham 

 Forest. Of the New Forest Fallow Deer, the Hon. G. 

 Lascelles, in a letter to Mr. J. Whitaker, quoted in the work of 

 the latter on English Deer-parks, observes that, at the date of 

 writing (January, 1892), there may be from two to three 

 hundred head. " They are all precisely alike in colour, viz., 

 very dark brown, with dun legs and bellies in winter, and in 

 summer all ' fallow,' i.e.^ light red, with whitish spots on the 

 sides. The brightness of the spots varies, but the colour 

 never. They all change their coats simultaneously in May 

 and October, just like Wild Roe, and in this respect of varying 

 in colour are unlike any Park-Deer that I know. 



" These Deer are the pure Old English (or Roman) stock. 

 They have always run perfectly wild in the forest and adjoining 

 woods, and the stock has never been quite extinct." 



In a wild state Fallow Deer are met with in South-eastern 

 Europe, while in Mesopotamian Persia the species is replaced 

 by the closely-allied Mesopotamian Fallow Deer (C mesopo- 

 . tamicus). It is noteworthy that fossilised remains of Fallow 

 Deer very nearly related to the common species are met with 

 in the " forest-bed " of the Norfolk coast. 



