DAINTIES OF ANIMAL DIET 191 



apple-boughs and shake off the fruit, and even leap up 

 to strike the branches which are beyond their reach 

 when standing. In enclosed parks red-deer find a sub- 

 stitute for apples in the small unripe horse-chestnuts 

 which fall in dry weather. At the Sheen Lodge of 

 Richmond Park, near which several chestnut-trees stand, 

 the stags have been known to slip out through the gate 

 to pick up the fallen fruit lying on the road. Fallow- 

 deer seem less fond of fruit than the red-deer. Bread 

 is the delicacy by which they are most easily tempted, 

 though, except in such small enclosed parks as that of 

 Magdalen College at Oxford, they are rarely tame 

 enough to take it from the hand. At Bushey Park, 

 where the herbage is unusually rich, and the fallow-deer 

 fatten more quickly than in any of the royal parks, 

 there is one old buck who has acquired such a taste for 

 bread that he has left the main herd, and established 

 himself as a regular beggar near the Hampton Court 

 Gate. The benches between this gate and the circular 

 pond and fountain near the head of the great avenue 

 are naturally favourite seats for Londoners who come 

 down and bring their luncheon with them. The 

 moment the buck sees a couple comfortably seated and 

 a paper parcel produced and opened, he sidles up, and 

 gazes with all the expression of which his fine eyes are 

 capable at the buns and bread-and-butter. If a piece 

 be held out to him, he walks up, and stretching forward 



