DEER : THEIR HABITS 



sprjftg\'6f ithe year, when other food is scarce and 

 .of -bad, quality, for -j;he bitter tonic contained in these 

 '' ' 



helps, tb' sustain, especially the fawns that have 

 lately lost their mother's milk. This has been noticed 

 repeatedly by the writer, for in most parks the deer are 

 carefully excluded from the plantations on account of 

 the damage that a large number of deer in a limited 

 space would do; but it now and then happens that a 

 few deer will find their way into the coverts during the 

 winter, and when that is the case they invariably pre- 

 serve their condition better than those in the open 

 park, and when they have consisted of does and fawns 

 the latter have come out in the spring in better con- 

 dition than those which have been fed artificially during 

 the winter ; of course the few deer get a large amount 

 of browse, but deer in their natural state are spread 

 over a large area and in smaller herds than in parks. 

 In this country, in olden time, the forest laws respect- 

 ing the preservation of vert were very strict. In a work 

 entitled " Man wood's Treatise of the Forest Laws," 

 published in 1717, but which had been previously pub- 

 lished in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, it says: " 'Tis 

 the nature of the wild beasts to frequent the coverts 

 and great woods where, in the winter, they are sheltered 

 from the cold, and in the summer from the heat;" and 

 again, "the coverts, woods, and trees in the forest, 

 especially those that are accounted vert, bear several 

 fruits which serve to feed the wild beasts in the winter 

 when there is very little pasture for them elsewhere, for 

 they then feed on acorns, haws, sloes, and the like, and 

 when such wild fruits are not sufficient then those that 

 have the charge of them cut down the branches of trees 

 (which is called browse wood) to feed them ; so that 

 the vert is not only a shelter but the food of the deer." 

 Vert in general is every tree, underwood, bush, and 

 such like, growing in a forest and bearing green leaves, 

 which may cover or feed the deer. In the New Forest 

 there was a large quantity of holly bushes, which, until 

 the deer were done away with, were topped in the 



