CHITAL OR AXIS DEER (Cervus axis) 



I DO not think many people have kept this deer in a park, at any 

 rate in this country. 



I procured them mainly to try to cross with the fallow deer, as 

 I had read somewhere that this would make the fallow deer more 

 spotted, in fact that it was the origin of the spotted race of fallow 

 deer, and I was trying to get an exceptionally spotted herd of the 

 latter. 



I had only one old fallow doe which was spotted enough for 

 my liking, and as the bucks (I mean fallow bucks) were all much less 

 spotted, her fawns did not turn out in this respect the equal of 

 their dam. 



I therefore got three axis stags and one hind ; the stags were 

 unlucky from the beginning, as some men began chasing two of 

 them as soon as they were turned out. (I wonder why it is 

 impossible to let the general public walk in a park without getting 

 trees broken, rubbish thrown about, one's deer chased and pelted, 

 and squirrels killed with stones.) 



In this instance both deer got tangled up in a wire fence round 

 some laurels, and each broke a leg and had to be shot. 



The other stag ran with the fallow deer for several years, and 

 seemed as if he were fulfilling what he was imported for ; but I 

 never saw any fallow deer calves which looked the least like a 



cross with him. 



6 4 



