Red Deer 73 



or otherwise alarmed, have often been observed to travel some distance and 

 then deliberately lie down in such a position that danger approaching 

 from in front is seen, and danger from behind scented. Hence they are 

 most readily approached after feeding. As mentioned by Mr. Cameron in 

 the foregoing notes, the red deer hind attends to the needs of her offspring 

 with remarkable assiduity ; the fawn being generally born among heather 

 or other suitable covert, where it is left alone during the day, and visited 

 by its parent at nightfall. To make it lie down, according to Mr. Scrope, 

 the mother presses the fawn with her nose ; and when once settled com- 

 fortably, remains curled up throughout the day. The hind does not, how- 

 ever, depart far from her offspring, which she is always ready to defend 

 from danger. This affectionate care of the hind for her fawn — whether 

 the species referred to be the red deer or the fallow deer — did not escape 

 the notice of Xenophon. As translated by Mr. H. G. Dakyns, he has the 

 following observations in his essay on hunting. " As day breaks, he [the 

 hunter] will espy the hinds leading their fawns to the places where they 

 will lay them severally to rest. Having made them lie down and suckled 

 them, they will cast anxious glances this way and that to see that no one 

 watches them ; and then they will severally withdraw to the side opposite 

 and mount guard, each over her own offspring. . . . When his eye has 

 lit upon the object of his search, he will approach quite close. The fawn 

 will keep perfectly still, glued as it were to earth, and with loud bleats 

 suffer itself to be picked up ; unless it happen to be drenched with rain ; 

 in which case, it will not stay quiet in one place. . . . The huntsman 

 having seized the fawn, will hand it to the keeper. The bleating will 

 continue ; and the hind, partly seeing and partly hearing, will bear down 

 full tilt upon the man who has got her young, in her desire to rescue it. 

 . . . Young fawns may be captured in the way described. Those that are 

 already big will give more trouble, since they graze with their mothers and 

 the other deer, and when pursued retire in the middle of the herd or 

 occasionally in front, but very seldom in the rear. The deer, moreover, in 

 order to protect their young will do battle with the hounds and trample 

 them under foot ; so that capture is not easy, unless you come at once to 

 close quarters and scatter the herd, with the result that one or another of 

 the fawns is isolated." All this is almost absolutely true to nature. 



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