MAMMALS 



UNGULATA 



27. Red Deer. Cervus elaphus, Linn. 



Although neither this nor the following 

 species occurs in a wild state in Hertfordshire 

 at the present day, a paper on the mammals of 

 the county is hardly complete without some 

 mention of them. In the Trans. Watford Nat. 

 Hist. Soc. for 1878, p. 32, there is mention 

 made of the discovery, in the peat in Pans- 

 hanger Park, of a fine pair of antlers and 

 fifteen vertebrae which were referred to this 

 species. The antlers were in a fine state of 

 preservation and measured 3 feet in length, 

 21 inches in spread, and 7 inches in cir- 

 cumference just above the place where they 

 joined the skull. Whether these remains 

 belonged to the indigenous red deer of Hert- 

 fordshire or to the former enclosed animals 

 is uncertain, but I should rather think to 

 the former category. There is however the 

 possibility of their belonging to enclosed 

 animals as formerly there were deer in this 



park, although I believe there are none there 

 at the present day. In the Transactions of the 

 Herts Nat. Hist. Soc. for 1883, p. 97, Mr. 

 Harting supplies a very interesting paper on 

 Hertfordshire deer parks, from which it would 

 appear that at that time this species was only 

 kept in one park in the county, viz. Ashridge 

 Park, the seat of Earl Brownlow. There are 

 still red deer there, some of which occasion- 

 ally bear fine heads. During the present year 

 I saw a stag there with a fine head of nine- 

 teen points. I believe that at the present time 

 there are from 100 to 150 red deer there. 



28. Fallow Deer. Cervus dama, Linn. 



Though now only to be found in parks in 

 this county, no doubt the fallow deer, which 

 still exists in a practically wild state in Epping 

 Forest in the adjoining county of Essex, was 

 also found wild here. Those days however 

 have unfortunately long since passed away. 



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