360 CERVID^. 



chestnuts, which the Bucks knock down from the branches 

 with their antlers, and the tree is consequently frequently 

 planted in Deer-parks. 



The pairing season begins in September and the Doe 

 goes eight months with young; she brings forth generally 

 one Fawn, not unfrequently two, and sometimes three, at 

 a birth, and conceals them as does the Hind, but some- 

 what less carefully. The young male exhibits the first 

 signs of his antlers in his second year, when they make 

 their appearance as simple snags, and the animal is called 

 a Pricket. In the third year the two anterior tines are 

 produced, and the extremity of the beam becomes 

 flattened or palmate. The fourth finds them further 

 developed in size, and the palmate portion is deeply 

 indented or incised. In the fifth year, when he attains to 

 the title of a Buck of the first head, the antlers have ac- 

 quired nearly their full development, but in the sixth the 

 snags of the flattened part of the beam, called spillers or 

 advancers, become more numerous, and the palmation has 

 attained a great breadth. The processes of shedding and 

 reproduction of the antlers is precisely similar to those 

 described in the Stag, but not only is their form quite 

 difierent, but the excrescences and furrows are much less 

 distinctly marked ; they are shed in spring, somewhat 

 later than in the last species. 



Fallow Deer venison is usually considered superior to 

 that of the Red Deer, being generally much fatter, but 

 the latter is considered by some to have the finest flavour. 

 The skin of both the Buck and Doe is well known as 

 afibrding a soft and durable leather. The antlers, like 

 those of other species, are manufactured into the handles of 

 knives and other cutler's instruments, and the shavings and 

 refuse have always been employed in the manufacture of 

 ammonia, whence the common name of hartshorn. 



