1 4 Deer Breeding for Fine Heads 



no case should a stag which is past his prime be used in the 

 stud. 



A regular stud-book should be kept of paddock-deer, each deer 

 having its ears marked when a few days old, and then entered 

 in the stud-book. 



In breeding for heads, it is important to be careful that all 

 your stags and hinds come of families which have good heads, and 

 likewise to kill off any which show the least disease, especially 

 lung-trouble. Consumption and malformed feet are the two diseases 

 I find most prevalent in deer kept in confined spaces in England. 



As a rule, very early or very late calves are not much use, and 

 all such, as well as all weakly or deformed ones, should be got rid 

 of at once, as, if allowed to live, they will give a lot of trouble 

 later, and if any malformation becomes established in a herd it is 

 difficult to eliminate after the sound deer have interbred with the 

 deformed ones. A stag with a narrow head, e.g. horns growing 

 more or less parallel instead of curving out\vards in a semicircle, 

 is best got rid of at once as soon as he has horns long enough 

 to show this defect. 



There is a form of deformity called "hummel" in Scotland, in 

 which the stags have no horns at all, but merely an unusually 

 thick-domed skull. I have, however, never seen this deformity 

 amongst park-deer; and the so-called " switch-horns," or full-grown 

 stags with only beams and brow-points, are rare amongst park- 

 deer. When they occur, the deer should be killed, unless you 

 desire to start a breed of hornless or pointless deer. This, I 

 suppose, would be possible with careful selection, and the elimi- 

 nation of any stags not conforming to the particular type wanted ; 



