The Red Deer 1 7 



in a forest, and look so like true red deer that the latter would 

 take to them at once. I have a herd of this triple cross which has 

 become a permanent breed and type in appearance, rather like a 

 very large grey-coated red deer. 



It is best not to turn out fresh stags too near the rutting- 

 season, although long enough before to allow them to get used to their 

 companions first, or otherwise the original stags will combine 

 against the new-comers, and most likely mob them to death, as 

 has been the case with fallow deer turned into my own park. 



Fences for red deer require to be very high. As I found a 

 seven-foot wire-strand fence is not high enough, I now have in 

 my paddock, on top of the seven-foot fence, two feet more 

 inclined inwards at an angle of forty-five degrees ; I likewise have 

 the steel wires very close together for the first five feet. Wire- 

 netting against the wire-strands is apt to get ragged and catch 

 in the stags' horns. 



It is difficult to supply satisfactory covert in paddocks in 

 which the hinds may produce and hide their young ; as, if the 

 protection be too good, the stag is apt to kill the calf by trying 

 to turn it out so that he himself may lie in the shelter. The 

 only way is to have the paddock large enough, with not too 

 many deer in it, and to remove the stag and separate the bad- 

 tempered hinds as soon as the others are ready to calve. 



I have seen very good stags in Galicia, almost like wapiti in 

 size, but as they cannot be driven (the woods being too large) or 

 stalked, they are waited for when roaring in the openings. 



It is curious that Scotch stags are at the present time the 

 worst in Europe. 



