Fallow Deer 61 



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The spots are somewhat differently placed in the axis when 

 compared with the spotted variety of the fallow deer ; the same 

 being the case with the side-stripe. Finally, I have not been able 

 to cross deer of the round-horned group, to which the axis belongs, 

 with palmate-horned deer. 



I have noticed a curious similarity which may be evidence of re- 

 lationship, between the Virginian white-tail deer and the fallow deer. 



The points of the white-tail's horns project backwards instead of 

 forwards, as in all other round-horned members of the deer family. 



I was puzzling over why these were the only horns that have 

 the points directed backwards, and looking at a stuffed head, when 

 it suddenly struck me that they recalled fallow deer horns. 



I made a sketch of the horns in profile, and then by filling in 

 between the points (like filling in between the toes of a hen's foot 

 to make the web of duck's foot), I obtained a presentable 

 drawing of a fallow deer's horns. 



In a similar way, starting with a roe-buck's horns it is possible to 

 pass gradually to the sika and axis, and so on to the red deer type, 

 and then from a many-pointed red deer head to the moose ; while 

 we may also pass from the moose back to the fallow deer, from the 

 fallow deer to the white-tail, and from the white-tail, by putting the 

 horn back-end forwards, to the sika, and so back to the roe. 



It is, in fact, just like the three main colours of the spectrum, 

 red, yellow, and blue, which can be arranged in a circle, the places 

 where they overlap being respectively orange, green, and purple. 



When shooting fallow deer for the market, better prices can be 

 obtained if the deer are shot only in the head or upper part of the 

 neck, as the venison is not spoilt, while the skin also sells better. 



