4 Deer Breeding for Fine Heads 



If deer are well fed, the points of their horns increase very 

 rapidly ; and I have seen a " first head " of five points, and two- 

 year-olds with ten and twelve points, instead of carrying only long 

 single points, after the usual fashion. Such heads are illustrated 

 among the photographs, which include an eighteen-pointer shot by 

 myself at Warnham Park in 1909, with his shed horns of the three 

 previous seasons. 



The great thing in starting a herd of red deer is to obtain 

 stags and hinds from strains in which the former have many 

 points to their horns. Some deer never develop many points ; 

 but many of the Warnham stags carry a great number of points 

 at a very early age ; and it is possible, with care, to produce a 

 herd in which these characteristics are strongly developed. In 

 Germany the stags on the preserves of the Prince of Pless carry 

 very good heads, and in consecutive years have won prizes at the 

 German Stag-horn Exhibitions. 



Here it may be mentioned that it is a pity no such exhibitions 

 are held in England, as they tend to improve the breed of deer, 

 just as horse-shows improve the breeds of horses. The German 

 exhibitions are got up by practical men ; the classes being so 

 arranged as to give each sort of deer its proper chance, park- 

 deer, for instance, not competing with wild forest-deer, or these, 

 again, with wild mountain-deer. 



In judging heads, shape and thickness count more than mere 

 number of points ; in Germany and Austria the number of points on 

 the horn bearing the most is doubled in describing that head ; if there 

 are not the same number of points on both horns, the word uneven. 

 " ungerade" is added. 



