RED DEER, FALLOW DEER & ROE 
are usually of a simple type, carrying twelve to fourteen points, but where 
conditions of life are good, and the hinds are shot hard or killed by wolves, 
the best heads show great complexity of the crown of the antlers. In France 
and Spain the horns are thin and seldom longer than 40 inches, only the very 
best carrying fourteen to sixteen points. In Norway they are thicker than 
Scottish but seldom carry more than ten points, though I have seen 
several of twelve and one of fourteen points, the greatest length being 
40 inches. In Central Germany heads with a length of over 40 inches and 
with sixteen points are rare; but those of Rominten (East Prussia) and 
German Poland are often fine and carry as many as twenty and even 
twenty -two points. 
In the magnificent collection of red deer horns at the Castle of Moritz - 
burg, near Dresden, are the finest known examples of red deer. These were 
mostly killed in the sixteenth and seventeenth century. No exact par- 
ticulars are known of these extraordinary heads, one of which has a span 
of 72 inches and carries twenty -six large points and weighs as much as 
the best (record) wapiti. In the Moritzburg collection are many other 
examples nearly equal to this and some have as many as thirty-six points, 
whilst one, quite an abnormal monstrosity, is credited with sixty points; 
although, according to our method of enumeration it would not have 
nearly so many. There are no modern red deer heads quite in the same class 
as the Moritzburg heads, if we except one shown in the Buda-Pesth Court 
in the great Vienna Exhibition of 1910; and even this cannot be called a 
“ modern ” head, for it was killed where the town of Buda-Pesth now stands. 
It must be remembered that some of the Kings of Saxony who made the 
remarkable collection at Moritzburg were also Kings of Poland, where the 
best red deer always existed, as they do to-day, so it is fair to presume 
that many of the examples, if not all, came from Poland. 
The best modern European red deer heads are usually obtained in 
Hungary, the marshes of the Danube, and the East Carpathians (Galicia). 
In 1910 I spent five days studying and sketching the best heads in the 
Vienna Exhibition, in spite of the unwelcome attentions of officials, who 
chased me all over the place (sketching and photographing being for- 
bidden), and it is not too much to say that such a collection of red deer 
antlers have never been nor will ever be brought together again. 
Quite the gem of the whole exhibit (shown in the Moritzburg Court) was 
a fourteen-pointer with very beautifully perled horns, having a length of 
48 inches and a weight with frontlet of 28 kilos. 
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