Reiiens — J. G. Millais — British Deer. 139 



Their origin, however, is quite recent, and even after the introrl action 

 of the Stoke deer, by which the herd was strengthened some years 

 ago, they were in no wise remarkable until the late Mr. F. M. Lucas 

 took them in hand and began a series of experiments with a view to 

 improving the pasture — about 250 acres in extent. Every alternate 

 year he dressed the land with bone-dust, the effect of which soon 

 made itself felt. The nutrimental qualities of the grass seemed to 

 be improved 70 per cent., yielding exactly what was wanted for 

 fattening and horn-growing. Half the park is reserved for hay, 

 so the red-deer, which number about 100, have no great extent 

 of ground to range over and very little w.inter-feeding. Neverthe- 

 less, they thrive and have continued to improve steadily since 

 1884, when the dressing was first tried, and at the present time 

 a four-year-old Warnham stag is better than an adult animal inmost 

 other English parks." (See PI. IV.) 



Mr. Millais gives on p. x an illustration of a pair of antlers 

 grown hj a stag living on an open heather-covered mountain 

 (Castle wellan, Ireland), with but little wood-shelter at the base. 

 Two other heads on pp. 130-1, one from Braeraore forest, 

 Eoss-shire, the other from Eskdale, and the pair of fossil antlers 

 from Bakewell, Derbyshire (figured in PI. II, Geol. Mag., Feb. 

 1898), may serve to illustrate the simpler form of red-deer antlers 

 in which the cup and highly-branched crown, are but little 

 developed ; the beam may be of great sti'ength, but it and the 

 tines are well- formed, symmetrical, and well-adapted for offence and 

 defence. This type appears to be a mountain-dwelling, hardy, 

 fighting stag. The crowned antlers with such a large number 

 of points (often from thirty to forty) are found in the peat-deposits, 

 and belonged to stags which must have been as well-fed in a natural 

 state as are those in Mr. Charles Lucas's park at Warnham Court, or 

 in the German deer-forest of the King of Saxony at Moritzburg. 

 Clearly, in these latter instances, the excessive richness of the 

 growth of antlers is a luxury which would only be found 

 exceptionally in a wild state, and must require special care for its 

 proper maintenance even in a park-herd (or under domestication).^ 



Passing over the fallow-deer as affording less geological interest, 

 we come lastly to the little roebuck, Capreolm caprea, a small 

 form of deer and a truly wild denizen of our woods, being found 

 in Dorsetshire, Hampshire, and Essex, in the south, in the west in 

 Wales, away north to Scotland, and wiiiely over Europe and 

 Western Asia. The male is somewhat over 2 feet in height at the 

 withers, of a dark reddish-brown colour in summer, with a white 

 patch on the rump. The small antlers stand close together at their 

 base, have a short rugged beam, rising vertically, then bifurcating, 

 the posterior branch again dividing. The roe-deer dates from the 



1 Mr. Lydekker, F.R.S., informs the writer that there is a magnificent series 

 of red-deer antlers to be seen in the Hall of Ham])ton Court Palace, where they 

 may have been since the days of its founder, the famous Cardinal Wolsey, in 1525, or 

 since its rebuilding by Wren in 1690. 



