THE FALLOW DEER 
CERVUS DAM A 
ITS NATURAL HISTORY 
T the present day Fallow deer are found in the Mediter- 
ranean littoral, Spain, Portugal, the British Islands, 
/ France, Germany, Asia Minor, and North Palestine. 
/ They have also been successfully introduced into New 
I Zealand, Tasmania, and one island in the West Indies. 
*L.That the species has long been known in Wales is 
proved by the fact that there are old Welsh names for it, Hydd and Ewig, 
whilst an old Gaelic name Dadhas is in existence. It is doubtful when the 
species became extinct in North Africa, but it does not now survive 
there, although Loche writes of having seen them in the forest of Calle 
(Algeria) as recently as 1867. 
In former times the Fallow deer was more generally distributed than 
it is to-day. It was indigenous to North Africa, Western Asia, South 
Russia, Denmark, Italy, and the South of France. A few frequented 
the Grecian woods, and one or two survivors may still exist there, for I 
have seen the head of one killed there as recently as 1870, by my friend 
the late Col. L’Estrange. 
In the Middle Ages Fallow deer inhabited the woods of Switzerland. 
That this deer existed in Mesopotamia in the earliest days of civilization 
is proved by the representations to be found on Assyrian monuments. 
It must have been found in Egypt too, for there are pictures of it on the 
tombs of Beni-Hassan. The hieroglyphical name of the species was 
(according to Zeitteles) “ hanen.” In 1774 it was very abundant in 
Sardinia, at which time no fewer than three thousand head were killed 
annually (Sassari), and it is still fairly numerous there. In Spain and 
Portugal it is now scarce, and seems never to have been very plentiful. 
Probably it is most abundant, in a purely wild state, in the Taurus 
Mountains of Southern Asia Minor and the woods of North Palestine, 
where it is seldom hunted. 
There is no doubt that the Fallow deer was an inhabitant of England 
in Pleistocene and even more recent times for Cervus browni (Dawkins) 
is identical with Cervus dama. For some reason, which one can scarcely 
understand, the Fallow deer seems to have become extinct in England 
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