NOTES ON THE RED-DEER. BY G. P. HUGHES 81 



Note of 2nd September i8g8. 

 Having to-day before me the proof of the above story for 

 revision, it may interest those who have read it to know 

 that the weight has been removed from the Swan king's foot 

 these two years. This season and last he visited the queen 

 on Nabdean pond, and remained during the nesting season ; 

 but at the close he did not insist on her travelling with him to 

 his river haunts, possibly because there were no cygnets to 

 come too. He has now fairly established himself near the 

 Paxton boat-house, and has, by sheer persistency, if not his 

 beauty, won the hearts of all who frequent the banks of the 

 Tweed ; indeed I am told he is quite a pet among the fisher- 

 men. If cygnets appear on the scene next year, it will be 

 curious to observe if he will be then satisfied to have the 

 family on Nabdean, or will venture to introduce them to 

 those on the Tweed whose enmity has turned into friendship. 



D. M. H. 



Notts on the Red- Deer (Cervus elaphus, Linn). 

 By G. Pringle Hughes, Esq. (Plate IV.) 



The Eed-Deer, or common stag, is a native of the more 

 temperate regions of Europe, Asia, and North America. In 

 Great Britain it has its freedom limited to the Highlands of 

 Scotland, where, however, it is carefully protected, and affords 

 the most attractive of British field sports, to the practised 

 rifleman and mountain climber. 



We read, ' that, in Germany, a century ago, the red-deer in the 

 Hartz Mountains, were very strictly preserved ; and lynch- 

 law was promptly executed upon poaching desperadoes, while 

 the keepers were ever in danger of being picked off by the rifles 

 of these unerring marksmen.' 



In early English History, when the marauding disposition of 

 the people made cattle a precarious property, the wild deer, 

 which depastured the country in large numbers, afforded the 

 staple article of food. Large hunting parties were collected, 

 and the victims of the chase miglit be counted by hundreds. 

 The ballad of 'Chevy Chase' records such a wholesale slaughter, 

 though the history of field sports relieves the statement of any 

 suspicion of poetic license. 



Naturalists are undecided whether the Linnean genus of 

 I, 



