RED DEER. 351 



forests of France and Germany, and more abundantly in 

 the more Eastern States, as Hungary, Servia, Transyl- 

 vania, Poland, the Danubian Principalities, &c. South 

 of these countries it is found, though more rarely, in 

 parts of Greece, Italy, and Spain, and it inhabits the 

 islands of Corsica and Sardinia. Within these limits the 

 Red Deer varies not a little in its size and in the compara- 

 tive development of its antlers ; thus the Eastern form 

 is unusually large and carries a fine head, whereas the 

 Stag of the Norwegian, Scotch, and Mediterranean islands 

 is small in size and has only a stunted growth of antlers. 

 It has accordingly been endeavoured to divide the Euro- 

 pean Red Deer into various species, but there appears 

 to be no ground whatever for such a step. Its nearest 

 allies or representatives in other countries appear to be 

 the Cervus wallichii of the Himalayas, the C. barbarus 

 of North Africa, and the C. canadensis, or Wapiti, 

 of America. 



In ancient times, when the British Islands were clad 

 with almost miinterrupted forests, the Stag undoubtedly 

 ranged throughout the whole country. But as civiliza- 

 tion and population increased, it was driven to find shelter 

 in the chases and preserved forests of the Kings and of 

 the great feudal lords, many of which were purposely 

 laid waste for its benefit, and where it was protected by 

 forest laws of the most savage severity — it was better to 

 have been a homicide in those days than to have killed 

 one of the King's Deer. These retreats gradually 

 diminished in number, one after another was disaffor- 

 ested, and others were sacked by the peasantry in times 

 of civil war. In England Red Deer were abundant in 

 Woolmer Forest in Hampshire as late as the reign of 

 Queen Anne, as is mentioned by White of Selborne ; a 

 few lingered down to the present century in lapping 



