68 POPULAR OFFICIAL GUIDE. 
AXIS DEER. 
also more strikingly colored. The latter species, shown in 
our northernmost corral, is about 33 inches in height, and of 
a dull and uninteresting smoky-brown color. Its antlers 
are quite large for a deer so small, and in the mating season 
males are sometimes dangerous. This species is very hardy, 
breeds persistently, requires no heat in winter, and very 
rarely sends a case to the hospital. 
The Fallow Deer, (Dama vulgaris), is the type of a dis- 
tinct group of deer which are distinguished by the posses- 
sion of antlers widely palmated throughout the upper half 
of the beam. In some old Fallow bucks the antlers are 
quite moose-like, and give this small deer an imposing ap- 
pearance far out of proportion to its actual size. The 
weight of a large buck in prime condition generally is be- 
tween 180 and 200 pounds, and its shoulder height is 
between 36 and 40 inches. The largest antlers recorded 
by Mr. J. G. Millais, in his beautiful work on ‘‘The British 
Deer,’’ measured 2914 inches in length, 28'4 inches spread, 
width of palmation 8 inches, and the number of points 14. 
The extinct Irish elk, with the most colossal antlers ever 
carried by a cervine animal, was a near relative of the 
two living species of Fallow Deer. 
Although a native of northern Africa and the north shore 
of the Mediterranean, the Fallow Deer was acclimatized in 
