COLOUR OF RED DEER 



I HAVE often noticed that there are at least four colours 

 amongst red deer stags. 



There are the dun-coloured stag, the bay stag, the dark stag, 

 called the black stag by foresters, and the grey stag. 



Some of this difference in colouring may of course be due 

 to the stags rolling in peat, but still, when a herd comes past 

 in a drive or is stalked, one indicates to the forester the 

 individual stags by their colours quite as much as by their heads, 

 when selecting which to shoot. 



Comparing these with any cross-bred deer, the bay-coloured 

 approaches the wapiti-red-deer cross, and the grey the Altai-red- 

 deer cross. 



As Shakespeare writes of the " dun deer," this would seem 

 to be the original English breed, unless, indeed, he is referring 

 to fallow deer of the non-spotted variety. 



Individual wild red deer are difficult to recognize again in 

 a large forest, but I think they must vary like fallow and 

 sika deer, so that one could, if it were desired, produce a breed 

 of dun, dark, or grey (or approximately that shade) by breed- 

 ing for these colours. The typical red deer is, I presume, the 

 one with a grey head, black neck, and red body. 



I have noticed that the red-deer-Altai cross gives a much more 

 dun body and less black or grey on the head and neck than a 



pure-bred red deer. 



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