Barbary Stag — Fallow Deer 513 



certainty at the present day is that strip of well -forested country which 

 extends from near the Mediterranean coast on the frontier of Algeria 

 and Tunis (near La Calle), southwards to the verge of the Sahara Desert. 

 The deer is most abundant in the cork forests of North-Western Tunisia 

 and in the pine forests to the east of Tebessa. The Barbary stag is now 

 protected in Tunisia, and is increasing considerably in numbers, especially 

 in the pine forests on the Tunisian side of the frontier near Tebessa. 

 A French authority, M. Lataste, is quoted in The Deer of all Lands as 

 having said that the Barbary stag was found in the desert country round 

 Dwirat, in the Tunisian Sahara. This statement must be due to a com- 

 plete misunderstanding. The present writer has visited Dwirat, and it 

 is evident that the animal alluded to by the native informers of M. Lataste 

 was the addax antelope. The Barbary stag never' ventures from the 

 shelter of the forests. After some years of protection, it has ceased to 

 be a very shy animal in Tunis, but in the days when its hunting was 

 permitted it was very wary. The present writer assisted in the killing 

 of a stag in North-Western Tunisia eighteen years ago. It was followed 

 on horseback, and hunted by Arab greyhounds — the beautiful white slug/'. 

 The Barbary stag becomes extremely savage in captivity. The Hon. 

 Terence Bourke, British Vice- Consul at Bizerta, has bred this animal 

 in captivity, but the father stag has succeeded in killing all his hinds 

 except one, his own daughter. H H j 0HNST0N . 



The Fallow Deer (Cervus damd) 



The fallow deer, which is found wild at the present day in parts of 

 Greece, in Spain, Portugal, Sardinia, and Asia Minor, is believed to have 

 inhabited North Africa, especially Eastern Algeria. The present writer 

 has made many inquiries on the subject, but cannot ascertain that any 

 specimen has been obtained of a real wild fallow deer during the present 

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