32 CEKVIDJ.. 



the mud ; others might be captured, and the most useful portions of the .animals 

 reserved for food, while the head and horns would be either buried, or flung into 

 the ever ready waters ; others, again, would be feasted on by the well-appe- 

 tized hunters,' and the refuse thrown away. Suppose a recurrence of such 

 scenes, through the lapse of perhaps ages (for this locality may have been a 

 favourite resort of the huntsmen), and such an accumulation of bones, horns, 

 and antique ornaments, as at present found, is easily accounted for."* 



In December, 1847, I got a very fine horn of the red-deer, dug out of 

 solid sand, four feet beneath its surface, in the excavation then being 

 made for a new channel in Belfast harbour. Other horns of the same 

 species were also found there about the same time. The cut was made in 

 the line of what was supposed to have been the original channel of the 

 river Lagan. 



The Fallow-Deer, Cerms derma, Linn. 



Smith in his History of Kerry notices herds of fallow-deer as frequent- 

 ing the " mountains " in that county. These being the haunts not of this 

 animal, but of the stag or red-deer (C elaplius), the latter was probably 

 the species alluded to, especially as in the index to the volume appears 

 " deer, red or fallow." For a long period the fallow-deer certainly has 

 not been found in any part of Ireland where it could be called truly wild. 



A horn of this species which I possess (through the kindness of Edward 

 Benn, Esq., of Glenravel, County Antrim) is stated to have been dug up 

 from a considerable depth in a bog, in his neighbourhood, but minute 

 particulars respecting it could not be obtained. It may not be out of 

 place to observe here, that the C. dama is now well known to inhabit 

 Greece, in a Mild state. Lord Derby for some years possessed a pair of 

 these animals, of the common spotted variety, which were brought from 

 the neighbourhood of Axinon by Lord Nugent, and which, as I am in- 

 formed by my friend Mr. Ogilby, who examined them attentively during 

 a visit to their noble owner, differ in no respect from the common fallow- 

 deer of our parks. Moreover, as remarked by the same gentleman, the 

 universal application of the word dama to this animal, in the Italian, 

 French, Spanish, and other modern languages derived from the ancient 

 Latin (added to the fact of the animal being still found in the forests of 

 Italy, where there are no parks or enclosures), points it out as the beast 

 of chase so frequently mentioned under the same name by the Roman 

 poets. Mr. Ogilby likewise remarks, that it is, in all probability, the 

 Plafi/ceras of Pliny, or rather of the Greeks, from whom he cojsied. It 

 is said, in a note to the second edition of the Regne Aithnal, to have been 

 found in the Avoods of Northern Africa. 



In the communication from Mr. G. Jackson, Glengariff, referred to in 

 treating of the preceding species, he added, " there is an abundance of 

 fallow-deer, which are all at large through the woods and adjacent moun- 

 tains. They had become so numerous as to do great injury to the 

 farmers, and my time has been taken up shooting the does." 



On lOth February, 1838, two friends accompanied me to Shane's Castle- 

 Park (County Antrim), and Ave were told by the game-keeper that there 

 were then about three hundred head of fallow-deer in it. A bushel of 

 beans was daily given to them, near the same hour, at Avhich time many 



* Dr. Ball considers that the accumulation of red-deer remains in Ballinderry, 

 may be accounted for by the animals having fallen through in attempting to pass 

 over the ice when the lake was frozen. 



