6 DEER I THEIR HABITS 



the late frosts cut off all the early fern shoots). When 

 the fawn is dropped the doe, unless disturbed, carefully 

 tends and suckles it, and after a few hours it is able to 

 follow its mother for a little. She then retires to feed 

 until it is time to go and suckle it again ; and how 

 wonderful is the instinct that enables her to go and 

 find her own fawn in the midst of fern abounding 

 with other than hers. For the first fortnight the fawns 

 lay up a good deal in the middle of the day ; in the 

 morning and evening they may be seen sucking the 

 does or frolicking about among themselves. After this 

 time they are found more or less with the herd, and 

 opportunity must be taken to kill off the fawns belong- 

 ing to the oldest does. If this is neglected, in a hard 

 winter the old does die and their fawns too ; whereas, 

 if the fawn is destroyed, the doe will most likely get 

 fat, and be good venison in the ensuing season. All 

 the fawns dropped after July should be killed, as those 

 bred late seldom thrive; this is true, I believe, of almost 

 all animals. I may mention here as a fact, that in a 

 certain park, though the deer killed were generally fat, 

 they were small, and the owner having, from the loss 

 of his keeper, to get another, the incomer at once 

 adopted the practice of carefully selecting early fawns 

 to leave for stock, as well as taking care to leave any 

 particularly fine buck for an extra season, and in six 

 years the weight of the bucks increased from 90 Ib. to 

 1 20 Ib. There is an opinion that the late fawns are 

 dropped by young does, and some persons have con 

 demned the practice of killing them, but careful obser- 

 vation will show that the late fawns are as frequently 

 dropped by old does, and in that case should certainly 

 be killed. Where it is desired to kill many does the 

 requisite number of fawns must be killed, always 

 reserving a large proportion of the male fawns for 

 stock, as the buck venison 'is the most valuable; of 

 course sufficient female fawns must be left to retain the 

 herd. In large parks the readiest way of killing them 

 is from horseback with large shot. This requires a 



