240 DEER AND DEER PARKS. Ch. XI. 



Fallow-deer differ considerably as to their size and weight; the lighter 

 and spotted, or menil, deer are generally larger framed than the others, 

 and a good fat buck will weigh from loo to 120 pounds when prepared 

 for venison ; the dark and dun kind do not weigh so much, though the 

 former are generally admitted to be the hardier, and the latter, for their 

 size, the fattest of the whole. Occasionally, however, these weights are 

 greatly exceeded : a paddock-fed buck at Eastwell has been known to 

 weigh 140 pounds, and even more; but when a buck has escaped from a 

 park, and fattened upon forbidden pastures, a much greater weight has 

 occasionally been attained ; as much as i 'j6 pounds was the weight of a 

 seven year old buck, killed at Eastwell in the year 1863, which had 

 escaped from the park, and lived at free commons on the crops during the 

 whole summer. This buck may be compared with the account of that 

 remarkable one, whose weight, however, is not recorded, mentioned in 

 Dr. Comber's ' Memoirs of Lord Deputy Wandesforde,' and whose^fat 

 measured five inches in thickness.' 



Here, perhaps, will be the place to say something as to the number 

 of deer to be kept in a park, which, of course, must depend upon its size, 

 and the nature of the soil ; but the great point being not to overstock, it 

 is a wise and safe rule never to allow more than one deer to the acre, and 

 even a less . proportion if sheep are suffered to be with them.^ Cattle and 

 horses, consuming, as they do, a coarser and different quality of grass than 

 that eaten by the deer, have been considered of great use, and in some 

 parks, after their introduction, the deer are said to have improved.* 



In order to preserve a proper proportion of bucks and does — two- 

 thirds to one-third is generally recommended — it is necessary, if possible, 



' Wandesforde's Memoirs, Cambridge, 1778, sheep could be kept with what would feed one 



p. 104.. . buck, but that four changes are to be got from 



^ Mr. DowneS stated in his evidence before the sheep whilst one deer is coming to perfec- 



the Select Committee of the House of Commons tion ; and in addition to the buck must be added 



on Woods, &c., in 1848-9, that 'he considered a doe to breed the buck.' 



the keep of a buck is equal to the keep of eight " This- was the case in Hursley Park, in 



or ten sheep ; he did not mean that eight or ten . Hampshire. 



