286 DELIBERATE INTRODUCTION OF NEW ANIMALS 



which indicate that, more than a century before Queen Mary's 

 gathering on Athole Braes, Fallow Deer were well established 

 in the country. Already in 1424, they were afforded the 

 protection of the law, being grouped with Red and Roe Deer 

 in an Act which provided that " stalkers that slayis deare, 

 that is to say, harte, hynde, dae and rae," should incur a 

 penalty of " fourtie shillings " and their employers a fine 

 of 10. " Dae" is clearly a Scottish form of "doe," the 

 ordinary and only appellation of the female Fallow Deer, just 

 as "rae" is the female Roe in contradistinction to Roe-buck 

 (witness the use of the terms in an Act of 1 503 which includes 

 both "raes" and "rae-bucks"). The reference to Fallow Deer 

 in the Act of 1424 is made still more positive by the fact 

 that the other deer of the country are carefully specified 

 the "harte" and "hynde" of the Red Deer, and the Roe. 



A perusal of the early Scottish laws, however, makes quite 

 clear that the Fallow Deer stood in a category distinct from 

 the Red and the Roe Deer ; for these being native and far 

 more common are frequently mentioned in laws which ignore 

 the presence of the Fallow Deer. Yet in 1587 we find the 

 Fallow or Dae mentioned with several of the most familiar 

 of wild animals: "slayers and schutters of hart, hinde, dae, 

 rae, haires, cunninges, and utheris beasts... sail be lyke cryme 

 to their committers as the stealers of horse or oxen." And 

 since, using caution as with men, we may judge deer by the 

 company they keep, it is apparent that the Fallow Deer were 

 well established and at least moderately common in the latter 

 part of the sixteenth century. 



The law, however, gives us no ground for supposing that 

 these deer were free or wild ; for the specific mention in a 

 statute of 1503 of "parked deare, raes, or rae-bucks," is 

 sufficient indication that the Fallow Deer were still the deer 

 of the parks. In the same century, King James VI himself, 

 when he returned with his consort, the Danish Princess Anne, 

 is said to have brought from Denmark the first examples of 

 the black variety of Fallow Deer and these he doubtless 

 deposited in his deer park at Dalkeith Palace. 



Nevertheless the experience of more recent times would 

 lead us to suppose that if the "parked deer" escaped, as 

 time and again they were almost sure to do, they would have 

 had no difficulty in establishing themselves in the wilder 



