THE RED DEER 



(Cervus elaphus) 



THE red deer, the typical representative of the family Cervidce, is the largest 

 and handsomest European member of that group, although it attains its 

 maximum development in point of bodily size and massiveness of antlers 

 only in eastern Europe and south-western Asia. As in most members of the deer 

 tribe inhabiting temperate countries, there is considerable seasonal difference in 

 the colour of the coat, and the fawns differ remarkably in this respect from their 

 parents. There are also distinctions in colour between the various local races of 

 the species. The ordinary name refers to the fact that in summer a more or less 

 distinct rufous colour prevails on the upper-parts. Here it may be remarked that 

 deer do not in most cases present that marked contrast between the upper and the 

 lower surfaces of the body so characteristic of gazelles and many other members 

 of the antelope group. And the reason for this is not difficult to explain. As 

 mentioned in the text accompanying the plate of that species, the white under-parts 

 of the gazelle are for the purpose of counteracting the dark shadow thrown by the 

 body when standing in full sunlight, and thus to render the animal inconspicuous. 

 Deer, on the other hand, are in the main nocturnal and forest-dwelling creatures, 

 and this type of protective colouring would therefore be useless in their case. The 

 chital, or Indian spotted deer, is, however, much less nocturnal than most species, 

 and also feeds to a great extent in the open ; and it is interesting to notice that, in 

 accordance with such habits, this species is white-bellied. 



Notable features in the red deer are the shortness of the tail, and the straw- 

 coloured patch on the buttocks in which that brief appendage is included ; the same 

 features recurring in its near relative the wapiti. As in all similar cases among 

 ruminants, the light rump-patch serves as a guide to the members of a herd ; the 

 place of this being taken in certain other species, such as the fallow deer and the 

 American white-tailed deer, by the pure white under surface of the tail, which is 

 raised when the animals are running. 



The antlers of the stag are characterised by the number and regular arrange- 

 ment of the tines ; and more especially, in their fullest development, by the 

 duplication of the first, or brow, tine, and the cup-like arrangement of the terminal 

 snags. 



Two features indicate that the red deer is what naturalists term a highly 

 specialised animal. These are, firstly, the shortness of the tail, and, secondly, the 

 white-spotted coat of the fawn, so utterly different from that of the adults of 

 the typical western representative of the species. In the race inhabiting the 



