32 
CERVIDJE. 
the mud ; others might he captured, and the most useful portions of the animals 
reserved for food, while the head and horns would be either buried, or flung into 
the ever ready waters; others, again, would be feasted on by the well-appe- 
tized hunters, and the refuse thrown away. Suppose a recurrence of such 
scenes, through the lapse of perhaps ages (for this locality may have been a 
favourite resort of the huntsmen), and such an accumulation of bones, horns, 
and antique ornaments, as at present found, is easily accounted for.”* 
In December, 1847, I got a very fine horn of the red-deer, dug out of 
solid sand, four feet beneath its surface, in the excavation then being 
made for a new channel in Belfast harbour. Other horns of the same 
species were also found there about the same time. The cut was made in 
the line of what was supposed to have been the original channel of the 
river Lagan. 
The Fallow-Deer, Cervus dama, Linn. 
Smith in his History of Kerry notices herds of fallow-deer as frequent- 
ing the “ mountains ” in that county. These being the haunts not of this 
animal, but of the stag or red- deer (C. elaphus), the latter was probably 
the species alluded to, especially as in the index to the volume appears 
“deer, red or fallow.” For a long period the fallow-deer certainly has 
not been found in any part of Ireland where it could be called truly wild. 
A horn of this species which I possess (through the kindness of Edward 
Benn, Esq., of Glenravel, County Antrim) is stated to have been dug up 
from a considerable depth in a bog, in his neighbourhood, but minute 
particulars respecting it could not be obtained. It may not be out of 
place to observe here, that the C. dama is now well known to inhabit 
Greece, in a wild state. Lord Derby for some years possessed a pair of 
these animals, of the common spotted variety, which were brought from 
the neighbourhood of Axinon by Lord Nugent, and which, as I am in- 
formed by my friend Mr. Ogilby, who examined them attentively during 
a visit to their noble owner, differ in no respect from the common fallow- 
deer of our parks. Moreover, as remarked by the same gentleman, the 
universal application of the word dama to this animal, in the Italian, 
French, Spanish, and other modern languages derived from the ancient 
Latin (added to the fact of the animal being still found in the forests of 
Italy, where there are no parks or enclosures), points it out as the beast 
of chase so frequently mentioned under the same name by the Roman 
poets. Mr. Ogilby likewise remarks, that it is, in all probability, the 
Platyceras of Pliny, or rather of the Greeks, from whom he copied. It 
is said, in a note to the second edition of the Regne Animal , to have been 
found in the woods of Northern Africa. 
In the communication from Mr. G. Jackson, Glengariff, referred to in 
treating of the preceding species, he added, “ there is an abundance of 
fallow-deer, which are all at large through the woods and adjacent moun- 
tains. They had become so numerous as to do great injury to the 
farmers, and my time has been taken up shooting the does.” 
On 10th February, 1838, two friends accompanied me to Shane’s Castle- 
Park (County Antrim), and we were told by the game-keeper that there 
were then about three hundred head of fallow-deer in it. A bushel of 
beans was daily given to them, near the same hour, at which time many 
* Dr. Ball considers that the accumulation of red-deer remains in Ballinderry, 
may be accounted for by the animals having fallen through in attempting to pass 
over the ice when the lake was frozen. 
