THE ACTION OF DEER 



ONE can tell the various kinds of deer by their action ; a red 

 deer, for instance, galloping quite differently from a fallow deer. 

 The latter and the sika deer have a trick of jumping with all four 

 feet together for some distance ; the fallow deer having their tails 

 curled over their backs. This is not generally from fright, but 

 in play. A fallow deer about to lie down always wags its tail as 

 it goes on its knees preparatory to assuming the recumbent posture. 



When a sika is frightened, he makes all the white hair on his 

 rump stand up, so that it looks like a big dandelion in seed, or a 

 pod of cotton when ripe. 



Sikas have a lumbering exaggerated copy of the gallop of red 

 deer. Wapiti gallop almost as awkwardly as a camel, and their 

 trot also looks very camel-like, the nose being carried high, although 

 they do really trot, and not pace in camel-fashion. A frightened 

 elk (moose) gallops, although Natural History books state that 

 it trots. 



I have seen a red deer hind when hunted by hounds go at a 

 hard trot, keeping just clear of the leading hounds, which were 

 galloping their hardest ; she must have been trotting at a 2.20 gait, 

 or even faster, and she went up to her fences and took them from 

 the trot. 



I have only seen one horse who could take a big fence from a 



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