Ch. XI. MANAGEMENT. 251 



they by degrees are so much contracted as totally to disappear, and become 

 at length a solid horny substance of great firmness. As this rigidity 

 increases the acuteness of their sensibility decreases ; probably the animal 

 then experiences a sensation like itchiness in that organ, which induces 

 him to rub it against trees and other solid substances he meets with ; that 

 rubs off the down, and sharpens the points of this weapon with which 

 nature has provided him, seemingly to give him power during the rutting 

 season, at which time it has acquired its highest degree of perfection. 

 From that period it becomes gradually ossified and insensible, till at length, 

 the blood-vessels being entirely obliterated, it loses all connection with the 

 animal, and finally drops off from it, to make way for a fresh crop during 

 the succeeding year, when the procreating power is by nature intended to 

 return. 



The fallow-deer is easily tamed, and feeds upon a variety of things 

 which the stag refuses, as I have already shown. They are gregarious to a 

 great extent, associating in large herds, the' bucks apart from the does, 

 excepting during the pairing season, and in the winter, during which 

 season they associate promiscuously. 



Towards the beginning of October, their throats begin to swell, when 

 they make a noise called groaning, with a kind of rattling in the throat, 

 which they do at no other season. They then associate with the does, 

 when the oldest and strongest, as has been already observed, becoming 

 masters of the herd, keep the younger male deer at a distance. At this 

 period, called ' the rutting season,' they neglect their food, and become 

 exceedingly lean ; and it has been observed that the more they are wasted 

 at this season the finer and fatter will be the venison, for the most part, in 

 the summer following.' About November, they separate from the does till 

 the following autumn. 



The seaso^i for killing deer in the Royal parks before the alteration of 

 the style in the year 1752, was, for the buck, from June 24 to September 



' Anderson's Recreations, vol. ii. p. 369. 



