THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
before the Peat Age, nor is it known to whom we owe its reintroduction, 
but it was probably brought over either by the Romans, or the early 
Phoenicians who traded with Great Britain. 
There is some difference of opinion amongst naturalists as to whether 
the Fallow deer was an inhabitant of Northern Europe during later 
Pleistocene and recent times; but all doubts were set at rest by the 
discovery of its remains in the superficial deposits of Denmark. These I 
have recently seen in the museum at Copenhagen. Dr Winge, in his paper 
on the subject, says that the antlers and bones were found in beds of Inter- 
glacial Age, that is, in strata deposited during a warm interlude in the 
second glacial epoch. 
There are many theories regarding the origin of Fallow deer in our 
country, but the fact that no remains of it have been found in the 
recent peat formations is a powerful argument that the species did not 
survive the second glacial epoch in Britain and live until historic times. 
It is just possible that the Epping, New Forest, and other wild races may 
be the descendants of the primitive stock, but if this were the case 
some of the missing links would probably have been discovered. It is 
curious, too, that an animal so hardy and cunning as the Fallow deer, 
should have died out, whilst the Roe and the Red deer survived. Man 
destroyed neither of the two last named, nor did the climatic con- 
ditions of the later Pleistocene Age have any effect upon them. This makes 
the absence of the Fallow deer, during many centuries, all the more 
puzzling. 
Mr Lydekker calls the deteriorated Fallow deer of Epping “a specialized 
breed,” and compares them with the single specimen (a very inferior 
one) from Asia Minor, now in the British Museum. He thinks these un- 
palmated horns are typical. This is an argument, however, which will 
not hold good, for typical wild specimens from the Taurus Range are fine 
animals, with well developed antlers similar to our best park deer, 
whilst even the small type from Sardinia and Greece have palmated horns 
quite different from those of the little Epping deer. 
The general colour of the upper parts in summer is a rich fawn, with 
large white spots, the neck is greyish brown, and is sometimes spotted. 
Along each fiank passes a white line and down the back and tail (which 
is long) there is a line of black hair. The buttocks are white, nearly sur- 
rounded by a black line, and the whole of the under parts and inner surfaces 
are white. In winter the body spots disappear, and the upper parts are 
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