THE RED DEER 
fall to the ground and enter the quiet pupal stage of their existence, 
becoming pupae from half a day to two days after being ejected.” 
In the pupal stage this creature remains from twenty to forty days, when 
it emerges as the fully -developed fly. Red deer and Roe are also attacked 
by a parasite resembling the ox -warble. 
Red deer will inter -breed freely with all their continental allies, as well as 
with Wapiti and Japanese deer. That these crosses and second hybrids will 
mate freely in confinement has been proved in various zoological gardens 
as well as by many private owners specially interested in deer. It is doubt- 
ful, however, whether the Wapiti cross in this country has been, or can 
ever be, as successful as it has proved in Austria, for various reasons. The 
chief of these is the great disparity in size. 
Once upon a time our little island Red deer came from the same stock 
as the American Wapiti, but since those days the two have drifted far 
apart, both in size and conditions of life. In the case of the great Austrian 
stag, which often attains proportions nearly equal to those of the Wapiti, 
the differences are not so great. They both live in much the same sort 
of ground and climate. So numerous, in fact, were the heads of Wapiti - 
Red deer crosses to be seen at the great Vienna exhibition in 1910 that I 
heard many complaints on the part of continental sportsmen that such 
a thing as a pure Hungarian stag would soon be a thing of the past. No 
doubt Austrain heads were deteriorating much as our Scottish Red deer 
are in certain places, and in this infusion of new American blood has done 
much to create fine, heavy and handsome trophies with a very large fourth 
point; but, on the other hand, it has slightly destroyed what we must 
deem some of the greatest beauties in the old Red deer heads, namely, 
rough black horns, with “ hookey ” sharp points and even cup -shaped 
tops. In Scotland it has always been found useless to turn down larger and 
heavier deer than those which are native born, because strength and size 
are no match for activity. A pure Wapiti would never breed a single cross 
if allowed free in a Highland forest, nor would a first hybrid be capable of 
catching hinds, whilst a park stag, even if a natural born fighter, would 
only get a few and probably only those in the woods. It therefore has 
been found by those who are most anxious to improve the stock in their 
Highland forests that the best way to do so is to make an enclosure in 
some sheltered part of the forest near to the road and the stalker’s house, 
where a good specimen of a park stag can be kept and into which the 
wild hinds of the forest can be lured by feeding, and so retained during the 
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