BRITISH DEER 



OUR three kinds of deer are the finest group of wild animals 

 now surviving in our islands. In speed and grace, combined 

 with the noble appearance of its antlers, the red deer excels 

 all our other beasts ; its wild and yet cloistered habits 

 and fine instincts give it an added charm. Two of our 

 three species the red deer and the roe are undoubted wild 

 animals, descended from the races which inhabited Britain 

 in far prehistoric times. It is possible that the fallow deer 

 may be the same. Since no remains of bones or antlers 

 have ever been found in the recent fossil deposits, or in the 

 peat-beds, it is generally believed that the present stock of 

 fallow deer in our parks and forests were introduced in 

 Roman times, like the pheasant. But remains of the fallow 

 deer are not lacking from the older fossil layers, where they 

 occur with those of the red deer and the roe. It is strange 

 that this one species should have vanished, while the other 

 two survived : and it is possible that further search in the 

 peat-beds will yet discover traces of the existence of the 

 fallow deer in early historic times, and link up the present 

 stock with the primeval dwellers in the land. 



The red deer is a thoroughly characteristic animal of the 

 great forest belt which runs right round the world in north 

 temperate climes. Its representative in America is the 



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