36 British Deer and their Horns 
would defy any expert living to prove they were not home-grown and pure-blooded wild 
ones. 
Park deer make big wallows, which are mostly used by stags and hinds alike in spring 
to free their coats from the old hair, the bain de marais generally taking place at night. 
Very often in a large enclosure quite a young stag will isolate himself from the others. 
He is to be seen alone at all times, and makes his resting-place and feeding-ground apart 
from the rest. In the opinion of one who has kept deer all his life, and is also a keen 
observer, stags which thus dissociate themselves from their fellows at an early age invariably 
turn out first-class animals, and probably the best in the place. He maintains that this 
early independence of character is a sure sign of future greatness. 
It may seem extraordinary that deer should ever die of hydrophobia, but there can 
be no doubt as to the fact. In the Field of 21st March 1896 one who is evidently an 
expert gives so interesting an account of this malady and how it is spread that I make no 
apology for quoting his words at length. He says— 
Rabies among deer occurs now and then from the incursion of a rabid dog, and in most cases the 
attack is unnoticed; in fact, no suspicion is aroused until the animals are found to be dying in 
considerable numbers from some mysterious malady. It might at first seem impossible for deer to get 
bitten by a rabid dog, but it is known to keepers that a doe with a fawn will go out of its way to attack 
a dog, and a rabid animal would not be likely to miss such an opportunity of inflicting a bite. 
The symptoms which have been observed in several outbreaks among deer in the course of the last 
ten or twelve years were pointing the nose upwards and constantly sniffing, rubbing the forehead against 
trees, running wildly about and at other deer. In some instances keepers, while watching deer which 
they looked upon as suspected animals, were suddenly and furiously charged by them, and it was found 
necessary to shoot them. 
It is not usual for cattle, sheep, or deer to use their teeth much as weapons, but they have sometimes 
been seen to bite at others ; and rabid deer have been observed to use their teeth in a curious manner. 
It happened that in one outbreak the disease persisted, notwithstanding that all the deer which were seen 
to indicate signs of rabies were immediately shot. This state of things suggested some means of infection 
which had not been provided for ; accordingly a very close watch was kept, and two facts were discovered 
which quite explained the mystery. 
Among the first symptoms of illness of any kind among gregarious animals is the tendency to get 
away from companions. This symptom had been observed, and deer so acting were at once suspected. 
It was further noticed that the sick deer became an object of curiosity to its companions, who came 
stealthily up to it, and when it was seen to grasp a mouthful of hay or grass, some of the deer near it 
immediately seized the food and pulled it out of its mouth. Another peculiarity was seen in the 
behaviour of the sick animals, which suddenly developed a desire to nibble at the skin ot any of the 
deer which came near them. There was no violence in the action to excite alarm or resistance ; the deer 
merely rubbed its teeth gently against the skin, and continued the movement until it could be seen that a 
decided abrasion, attended with slight haemorrhage, was the result. By two methods of inoculation, 
therefore, the infection was communicated from rabid deer to the healthy animals. 
There could be no doubt that the rubbing or nibbling at the sides of a healthy deer was a certain 
method of communicating the disease. Pulling a tuft of hay from the mouth of a rabid deer and 
swallowing it would be dangerous only in the very probable event of a minute wound existing in the 
mucous membrane of the digestive organs, but the process of gently gnawing the skin by a rabid deer 
would constitute the most perfect method of inoculation that could be devised. 
