822 I'HE ZOOLOGIST. 



with drains and gratings to enable the man to wash the place 

 down every morning, I left the surface sufficiently rough to 

 wear their hoofs and keep them from growing too long. This is 

 of the first importance in keeping hoofed animals, to prevent 

 their becoming lame. A division was made in the centre, with a 

 gate so arranged that it could be opened and shut from the 

 outside, to separate the stag when necessary from the hinds, and 

 also for the safety of the man when cleaning the place when the 

 stag had his horns burnished. In each division there was a 

 separate retreat, with straw bed, hay-rack, and water-trough, and 

 everything was then ready for the deer, which I purchased from 

 Mr. Herring, the well-known dealer in deer, then living in the 

 New Road. One of the hinds being scarcely at the end of her 

 first year, she did not breed until the second season after I had 

 her, — that is, in her third year, — but the old hind (not her 

 mother, by-the-bye) had a good calf, and after that each season 

 they had a calf for five consecutive years. Whilst I kept them 

 I gave away two yearling hinds to the Zoological Society ; but 

 I do not know what became of them, as I never saw them after- 

 wards, and could not learn anything definite from the keeper, 

 though I did not press my enquiry. 



One fine male calf, which was born in the last week in May, 

 1875 (the earliest, by-the-bye, I remember), I thought I would 

 keep, in order to see how he would turn out, and a fine deer he 

 made, being quite the height of the old stag at the end of tlie first 

 year. He had then begun to throw up his first points, which 

 were, as usual, straight ones, and were shed at the end of the 

 following April, or rather in the last week of that month, so that 

 I reckoned he was then one year and eleven months old. He 

 then commenced his first antlers, which, to my surprise, had nine 

 points, when fully up at the end of July ! I might, I think, have 

 called him " a stag of ten,'' but the bay tine on one side was only 

 what is called an " off"er," about half an inch long. I parted with 

 him in the following autumn to go to Richmond Park, where 

 I hoped to see him from season to season ; but I was much 

 disappointed afterwards to find that they had been obliged to cut 

 him, for being brought up so tame, and having lost the natural 

 fear of man, he became too dangerous for a public park, and 

 would attack people, and even horses in carriages, I was told. It 

 was also unfortunate that when moving him they were obliged to 



