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 
