Book VII. 



DEER, ANTELOPE. 



1077 



kept perfectly clean : much attention should, he says, be paid by the keeper to makehimself familiar with 

 them, that he may enter the place without disturbing them. The first week in March he gives them oil- 

 cake, about half a cake each a day, with chaff, which fattens them so quickly that all are gone in May, 

 Before killing they have some green meat given, to take away any ill flavour from the cake, supposing 

 such to be the effect of the food ; for it is certain that the venison is exceedingly good. As to weight, a 

 haunch usually weighs about 24 pounds ; a brace is sold for 15 guineas : the skin, worth 21. 2s., is the 

 keeper's perquisite; so that the value of a brace amounts to 111. lis. exclusive of some trifling articles. 

 The purchaser sends for them." It is added, that his lordship usually fattens nine brace : his whole 

 winter stock rises to 350 head, in a park of 25() acres, but much of it is thickly covered with timber ; thirty 

 sheep and ten cows also feed on it The park consumption of hay amounts to thirty-two loads, being 

 reduced to that quantity by the use of much browse ; all ash, elm, and Scotch pine being brought for that 

 purpose before faggoting, which not only saves hay, but improves the flavour of the venison. 



7374. Bi/ castrating the males of deer when newly dropped, which is not in the least dangerous, it affords 

 the means of having good venison until Christmas, without any other sort of food than the common grass : 

 they also fatten more quickly; the operation must, however, be performed while they are quite young. 

 {Devonshire Report.) 



ISIS. The moose deer, or elk (C^rvus .^'Ices i.), is indigenous in Europe, America, 

 and Asia, as far as Japan, and was formerly wild in this country, though now extinct. 

 It is of the size of a horse ; gentle, except when teazed by the gad-fly ; feeds on twigs 

 and branches of trees, and marsh plants ; goes on its hoofs with a shambling gait at the 

 rate of fifty miles a day ; has a skin so hard as almost to resist a musket ball, but flesh 

 tender and good. This animal might be introduced as an inhabitant of parks, where it 

 would add to the variety of animated woody scenery and of venison. 



7376. The reindeer (C^rvus Tarandus Li., Jig. 913.) is an inhabitant of the alpine 



mountains of America, Europe, and Asia, and is 

 913 <v\\<\vH^/ too remarkable an animal, and too well known, 



to require a particular description or account of his 

 habits. 



7377. The tame variety have been introduced more than 

 once into this country by the Hon. Daines Barrington, Bul- 

 lock, and others, but cannot be kept in parks on account of 

 the want of their particular lichen. As this lichen abounds 

 on several mountains in Yorkshire, and on many in Scotland 

 and Ireland, some patriotic and curious noblemen might 

 attempt its cultivation. The milk and cream, as Ur. Clarke 

 states, are most excellent, and also the flesh ; and even as an 

 article of profit, the sale of the animals as breeding stock 

 would pay for a time. Lichen hay might no doubt be im- 

 ported at an easy rate from the gulf of Bothnia ; and the 

 animal by degrees in the course of a few generations might 

 be habituated to grsas or the spray of trees. 



7378. The antelope (Antelope L.) is a beautiful and numerous genus of animals, par- 

 taking of the nature of the goat and deer. Two species, the A. Saiga, or scytheon, 

 and the A. .Rupicapra or chamois, are natives of Europe, but the rest of hot climates. 



7379. Antelopes, Pennant observes, are animals generally of a most elegant and active make, of a restless 

 and timid disposition, extremely watchful, of great vivacity, remarkably swift and agile, and most of 

 their boundings so light and elastic as to strike the spectator with astonishment What is very singular, 

 they will stop in the midst of their course, gaze for a moment at their pursuers, and then resume their 

 flight As the chase of these animals is a favourite amusement with the Eastern nations, from that may 

 be collected proofs of their rapid speed. One of the highest compliments that can be paid to female beauty 

 in the Eastern regions is. Aim el Czazel, ' You have the eyes of an antelope.' Some .species of antelopes 

 form herds of two or three thousand, while others keep in troops of five or six. They generally reside in 

 hilly countries, though some inhabit plains : they often browse like the goat, and feed on the tender shoots 

 of trees, which gives their flesh an excellent flavour. 



7380. The comnnon antelope {A. Cervicapra L.) abounds in Barbary, and in all the northern parts of 

 Africa. It is somewhat less th^n the fallow deer : its horns are about sixteen inches long, surrounded 

 with prominent rings almost to the top, where they are twelve inches distant from point to point. The 

 horns are remarkable for a beautiful double flexion, which gives them the appearance of the lyre of the 

 ancients. The colour of the hair on the back is brown, mixed with red j the belly and inside of the thighs 

 white ; and the tail short 



7381. The chamois antelope {A. R\ypic3.^ra,fig. 914. o) was formerly considered as belonging to the genus 



C&pra, and is generally called the 



914 flfeJI J\ chamois goat It is found on the 



'^ mountains of Switzerland, where it 



is very shy, and hunted both for its 

 flesh and skin. (342.) 



7382. The Scythian antelope {A. 

 Saiga L.) bears a good deal of 

 resemblance to the common goat, 

 and it is fully as easily tamed. They 

 are found in immense flocks on the 

 banks of Borysthenes and other parts 

 of Russia, where they are valued 

 both for the flesh and their skin, 

 which is equal to that of the chamois 

 for gloves. 



7383. The nilgau, or white-footed 

 antelope {A. picta L. fig. 914. b), is a 

 large and beautiful species, known 

 only within the space of a few years 

 past Its height is four feet one 



inch to the top of the shoulders ; its length, from the bottom of the neck to the base of the tail, four feet ; 

 and the colour a fine dark grey. The nilgau has of late years been oflen imported into Europe, and has 

 bred in England. In confinement, it is generally pretty gentle, but is sometimes seized by fits of sudden 

 caprice, when it will attack with great violence the object of its displeasure. The nilgau is said to go 



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