THE FALLOW DEER 



THE FALLOW DEER. 



Cervus dama, Linnaeus. 

 Plate 38. 



Standing three feet high at the shoulders and measuring from nose 

 to tip of the tail about five feet eight inches, this species differs con- 

 siderably in form and character from the Red Deer. 



The horns of the Fallow Deer have two anterior tines in each, and 



have no ' bay ' tine. The upper part of the beam is flattened out like 



' the palm of a hand, and broken up on the top and behind into several 



spikes of various length, the lowest, known as the back point, being 



the longest and most distinct in normal heads. 



In many of the New Forest bucks the form of antler differs from that 

 of the ordinary Fallow Deer in parks, and resembles the type found 

 among some of the wild species in Asia, whose horns are much less 

 palmated and more broken up with prongs. 



In summer coat, the colour of the Fallow Deer is as a rule of a 

 yellowish russet on the upper parts of the body, boldly spotted with 

 white, with a stripe of the same colour extending along the flanks. The 

 under side of the tail and surrounding parts are conspicuously white, and 

 the belly and inner sides of the legs are also light. 



In winter the white spots disappear, and the colour of the body darkens 

 to a greyer brown. This description applies only to the typical Fallow 

 Deer, but in most parks where deer have lived for generations in a 

 semi-domestic condition, various varieties are found, from an almost uniform 

 black hue to pure white. These aberrations in colour are not of recent 

 occurrence, but have been known in England for several centuries, 



43 



