32 THE RED DEER. 



are often suckled by their mother for twelve 

 months. 



The males are capable of reproduction at the end 

 of two years ; but their presence is never tolerated 

 by the master-stags, wherein we see a double pur- 

 pose fulfilled by nature. 



FOOD. 



In feeding, the deer is more omnifarious than 

 sheep and cattle, and its food depends considerably 

 upon the country in which it dwells. Red deer 

 are particularly partial to nettle-roots, which 

 possibly are medicinal, and, in common with all 

 split -hoofed animals, salt is essential to their 

 welfare. They will visit the coast in order to 

 lick the brine-coated rocks. When hard pressed 

 in winter, deer have also been known to congregate 

 upon the sands in order to feed on seaweed ; but 

 this is taken in quantities only when the stern 

 alternatives are seaweed or starvation. 



In Avinter the food of the Highland deer is not 

 widely different from that of the reindeer. They 

 scratch away the snow with their hoofs in order to 

 get at the mosses and lichens below. They are 

 fond of heather, but the bright-green, short-bladed 

 grass that caps the mounds by mountain-rills is 

 chief among their foods. Coarse bent is also eaten. 



In woodlands the deer eat leaves and green 

 shoots of almost any kind, and in winter mosses, 

 the bark of trees, and even fungi. 



Ever since the deer were preserved as beasts of 

 the chase they have maintained a lively notoriety 

 for their depredations upon crops and farm produce 

 of every kind. Standing wheat and root-fields 

 have a special attraction for them, and the task 

 of adequately fencing in the plots that they have 



