THE FALLOW DEER 
species. In movement, Fallow deer are very quick to make up their minds 
as to their line of retreat. Led by some old doe, they trot or gallop in a 
long string, the big bucks coming last. They are sensitive about crossing 
roads or human tracks, even in a park, and will spring as if to avoid some 
snare: a wild trait that centuries of confinement has not eradicated. When 
alarmed they bunch close together, but keep jostling and pushing one 
another all the time, whilst the constant shaking of ears and tails give 
a herd a flickering appearance. In travelling long distances they gallop 
much more frequently than Red deer, and can maintain this pace for 
several hours. Their trot is rather shuffling, and without the grace and 
dignity of their larger relatives. 
In wet seasons they suffer much from liver-fluke, but this disease seldom 
appears in well-drained parks, or in forests where they are wild. 
They are captured by being driven into an improvised net enclosure 
of thirty or forty yards square; and then again forced into a net which 
falls as they strike it. When once caught, unlike Red deer and Roe, Fallow 
deer hardly fight at all, and it is easy to put them, living, on a man’s 
back and carry them to a cart. 
When turned out. Fallow deer at once revert to wild conditions. They 
keep very closely to the woods, especially the single old bucks, which 
often follow a solitary existence. When disturbed they are far more cunning 
in breaking back and heading out of woods at unexpected corners, than 
any other deer. Even on the open hills Fallow bucks are, as a rule, harder 
to stalk than Red deer. Although not so long-sighted, a quiet shot is often 
difficult to obtain, owing to the quickness of their sight, and they generally 
move off at once without “ standing at gaze,” as Red stags do. Also if a 
good buck is with a party of does, or smaller deer, he has an exasperating 
habit of moving a few steps at a time in their midst, with his own body 
covered by those of his companions. They are, as a rule, easy to kill, 
and I have shot many in parks with the Savage *22 (long cases) ; but this 
is not to be recommended at long ranges, and is only useful in restricted 
areas where Fallow deer must be shot, and there is danger to people on 
roads, footpaths, etc. There is some danger in using the larger rifle in 
an English park, for I was once out with a friend who is generally a 
most careful man, when he took a running shot at a buck which had 
annoyed him by its frequent escapes. He missed the buck, but put the 
bullet through the window of the keeper’s house within a foot of where 
an old woman sat sewing. 
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