DEER 269 



_You cannot take a census of wild animals, and 

 the only fact we have to go on is that some 60 deer 

 can be and are killed year after year without any 

 apparent reduction in their numbers in the country. 

 From this I believe the total head of deer to be about 

 400. For if 60 are killed without reducing the stock, 

 there must be a similar number born and reared to 

 replace them ; and if there are 60 hinds who rear 

 their calves, there will be fully 120 who are too young 

 or too old to breed, or are barren or who fail to rear 

 their calves. That would make nearly 200 hinds of 

 all ages ; and as we know of nothing to cause any 

 permanent inequality of number between the sexes, 

 there is likely to be a male deer for every female 

 which gives 400 in round figures as the stock at 

 the beginning of the hunting season. As Scotch 

 authorities say that to keep a herd stationary in 

 numbers you should not kill more than one-eighth to 

 one-tenth, and as quite six deer come to grief indepen- 

 dently of the hounds every year, it may safely be said 

 that this estimate is a moderate one. 



A good many people will call it too high, on the 

 ground that no one sees deer in such numbers ; but 

 the time that the deer show themselves is the winter, 

 when the public does not hunt, and even then for 



