THE FALLOW DEER 349 



cerning the cruelty inseparably attached to hunting the 

 wild Red Deer for purposes of sport. But there can be 

 no palliation of the brutal practice as followed in some 

 of the southern counties, where the quarry consists of a 

 frightened and only half-wild animal, turned out of a box 

 just previously to the commencement of the hunt. Very 

 often, too, when the animal has been run down, it is 

 rescued from the hounds only to provide sport upon 

 another occasion. 



FALLOW DEER (Cervus dama). 

 Coloured Plate XXV. Fig. 3. 



The familiar Fallow Deer, which is so ornamental an 

 inhabitant of many parks and pleasure-grounds, easily 

 accommodates itself to domesticated ways, and becomes 

 much more tame than the generality of sheep. At the 

 time of year, however, when the males are doing battle 

 for their partners, they consider any living creature as a 

 rival, and attack it furiously. It is as well to keep out of 

 their way until they have settled all their households, as 

 even the keeper who feeds them becomes an object 

 of suspicion. 



The Fallow Deer is said to have been introduced into 

 Britain by the Romans. It probably died out in later 

 times, and James I. is sometimes credited with having 

 reintroduced it from Norway. In all probability the 

 original habitat of this species of Deer was the shores of 

 the Mediterranean, but in any case Fallow Deer existed 

 in Windsor Park quite one and a quarter centuries before 

 James came to the throne. 



Smaller and more slender than the Red Deer, a full- 

 grown fallow buck rarely exceeds three feet in height at 

 the withers. Its head is short and broad, and it has a 

 tail six or seven inches long. In both sexes the colour of 

 the coat in summer is fawn or yellowish-brown, marked all 

 over above with large white spots. In winter the spots 

 nearly completely disappear, and the colour becomes 

 more sombre, taking on a greyish tint. The Fallow 



