60 Deer Breeding for Fine Heads 



For the same reason barbed wire is very dangerous to leave 

 about ; and I have seen a buck who had rolled himself up in a 

 loose end left lying on the ground torn to death. 



It is best not to allow unsuitable bucks to live till they are 

 two or three years old. The tendency is to let them grow r for a 

 few years so that their venison will be more valuable when they 

 are shot, but since even a two-year-old, and much more a three- 

 year-old, may chance to breed, it is best to shoot them as young 

 as possible. 



If it is possible to find the fawns when just born (in some 

 parks the does produce their fawns in thick nettle-beds, or beds 

 of bracken, when, if searched for, they can easily be found curled 

 up), the bad-coloured young males can be caught and gelded. 



Then of course they can be let run as " haviers " till they 

 grow big and fat ; these making the best venison. 



The proportion of fawns that die when gelded is very large 

 unless the operation is performed by a skilful person, but as these 

 bad-coloured males are best out of the way in any case, this is not 

 of much importance. 



Fallow deer are not of much use for hunting with hounds ; 

 they run pretty well, but cannot be used as " carted " deer, since 

 they almost always die when caught ; neither can they be roped 

 and taken home, and hunted another day, as they seem to run 

 themselves to death, injuring themselves so much that, if they do 

 not die at once, they almost invariably do so next day. 



In some works on natural history it is stated that the origin 

 of the spots on the fallow deer is due to an axis cross, but this 

 is surely untrue. 



