COMMON FALLOM'-DEEll. 
153 
deer are now kept are in a manner limited ckaces 
or forests ; several thousand acres being sometimes 
enclosed, embracing a variety of hill and dale, fo- 
rest timber, water and cover, and stocked in addi- 
tion with a variety of other game. Here, liowever, 
they are attended to in winter, and only such a 
number retained as can be sufficiently fed. Six 
thousand head of fallow-deer have been kept in one 
of these enclosures, and from three thousand to fif- 
teen hundred is now common in most of the larger 
English parks. The flesh as venison is very highly 
esteemed, and the skins furnish a strong, pleasant, 
and durable leather. 
The most common colonr of this animal in sum- 
mer is of a yellowish-brown, marked with numerous 
pale spots. The buttocks are always white, and a 
dark line passes along the back. The under parts 
and insides of the legs are white. It varies to white, 
and there is a constant dark brown variety, the fawns 
of which are cot even spotted. 
Three fossil animals belonging to this group have 
been enumerated, but two of these are thought by 
some to be identical. These are the Scanian Fal- 
low-Deer, * dug out of peat at Svedala, in Scania ; 
and the Fallow-Deer of Abbeville.-t- Both are larger 
than the common species ; but by far the most re- 
markable is the animal known under the name of 
* Ccrvus (Dama) paleodoma. Cervus (Dama) lo- 
nronensis. 
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VOL. III. 
