THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
specimens were ever killed in Germany. It is far more likely they came 
from Poland. 
In modern times overstocking, curtailment of range and insufficiency 
of winter food have caused the same deterioration as in our own deer 
in Scotland; for it is only in those forests where careful management 
is exercised that German stags are of any size in body and horn. The 
best heads reach 18 lb., but few exceed 40 inches in length, so that on the 
whole modern German heads do not compare favourably with the best 
of those from Roumania, Turkey, Hungary, the Danube, and Galicia. 
Stags are usually shot during the rutting season by stalking. 
Fallow deer are abundant in the plains of Northern Germany and Hol- 
stein and are kept in parks and forests throughout the country. In the 
Royal Prussian forests of Letzlingen and Shorfhaide there are about 
7,000. 
The roe is fairly plentiful from the Alps to the North Sea. It lives both 
in forests and cultivated plains, being a great favourite with German 
sportsmen. There they understand the chase of the roe much better than 
we do, and seldom kill this fine animal except by stalking or “calling” 
to the rifle. Few British sportsmen understand the character of the roebuck 
and those who think that the chase is easy had best try a season at them. 
Their powers of scent, sight and hearing are at least equal to those of the red 
deer, and were it not for their fatal fault of curiosity but few bucks would 
fall to the bullet. In Germany roe are not so plentiful as they are in Galicia, 
Hungary and Southern Austria, but in the best forests as many as six 
to nine have been killed in a morning’s stalk. The largest numbers are 
to be found in the Black Forest on the estate of Prince Furstenberg, who 
has told me that nine and ten bucks have often been shot in the course of a 
morning and evening’s stalk. In the northern part of Silesia, especially in 
the Primkenau estate of the Duke Ernest Guenther of Holstein and in 
Mecklenburg roe are very abundant. The largest are killed in East Prussia, 
where heads have much deteriorated of recent years. The average weight 
of a good German roebuck is from 45 to 50 lb., but one shot by the Emperor 
at Proekelwitz (East Prussia) weighed 71 lb. Stalking is generally prac- 
tised at dawn and sunset, when the bucks are feeding on grass lands, low 
crops or at the edges of woods and forests. In large estates many are 
shot by means of the stalking carriage. The sportsman drops off his 
vehicle on the reverse side when the buck is viewed and the cover in the 
form of a tree or bush is taken advantage of. The most common method 
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