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FAWNS IN THE "FENCE-MONTHS" 



"DEFENSE de chasser" is probably the origin of 

 the ancient term of venery which heads the notices, 

 posted during May and June at the gates of the 

 royal deer-parks, requesting that during the " fence- 

 months " visitors will prevent their dogs from dis- 

 turbing the deer. In the months of May and June 

 the red deer calves and fallow fawns are born. When 

 the young fern is up, and Richmond Park is in 

 its fullest sylvan beauty, the three main herds into 

 which the seventeen hundred head of deer in the park 

 usually divide, are broken up. The stags have shed 

 their horns, and steal away in small parties into the 

 quiet parts of the park until their new antlers are 

 grown, and the does and hinds are severally occupied 

 in the most anxious care .of their fawns. It is not 

 until some weeks after their birth that these beautiful 

 little creatures are seen in any number by the chance 

 visitor to the park. Though both the red and fallow 

 fawns can follow their hinds within a few minutes 

 of their birth, the careful mothers hide them in the 

 tall fern or patches of rushes and nettles, and it 



