Red Deer 
27 
hair, preferring, apparently, the hair of the red deer to that of the fallow. To collect the 
cast patches of hair lying about would be far too honest and simple a proceeding for birds 
whose rascally propensities are only equalled by their love of mischief, so they generally 
obtained their material direct from the animal itself. And this was the way they managed 
it. Habitually suspicious of danger, they would never alight directly, as starlings do, on a 
deer’s back, but settling in pairs close to one of the herd, they would commence strutting 
around with an air of innocence and unconcern that would deceive the most wary beast that 
ever lived, and then when the deer lowered his head to feed, or looked away at some object 
in the distance, one of the rascals would fly up suddenly, and, pouncing on a bunch of loose 
hair which he had previously “ spotted,” would carry it off in triumph. 
One of the many advantages of observing deer in a park is the opportunity it affords 
for detecting the apparently subtle means by which red deer communicate to each other the 
presence of danger, and this can be readily done by simply betraying one’s presence when 
STAGS PASSING UNDER TREES WHEN THEIR HORNS ARE IN VELVET 
within a few yards of the herd. On one occasion, after showing myself to a single old hind, 
she at once, by her strained attention and quick veering round, made her fear known to the 
animals alongside, who at once took the hint, all except two yearling calves who were 
feeding close to her. I then saw a very pretty display qf red deer education. The two 
yearlings continued feeding without looking up, and the old lady, noticing their disregard, 
approached each in turn and touched him lightly with the point of her foot, after which 
she again faced round and looked carefully at the spot where my head had appeared. One 
of the yearlings then took the hint, but the other, after looking up, began to feed again 
with leisurely indifference. This was a bit too much for the now irate mother, so rushing 
at her disobedient child, she administered such a blow with one of her forelegs as to knock 
the unfortunate youngster clean off his legs. Nor is this practice confined to hinds ; old 
stags will frequently communicate with each other by the rough-and-ready method of 
striking with a foreleg. 
Red deer in parks, even where their range is restricted, are more or less governed by 
the same laws, and act in the same free-and-easy fashion, as their wild relations ; and the 
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