British Deer and their Horns 
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Two or three of the does, even the old ones, for they do not ever seem to get blase , and a 
last year’s calf or two start off and chase each other sometimes for over a mile, perhaps even 
right round the park. After every “ short burst ” they stop, buck, and skip about in the most 
ridiculous fashion, and again shaking their heads, pretend to butt at each other like their 
horned relations. This brings them to a standstill, but only for a moment, when off they 
go again, chasing one another as hard as they can pelt. So the high jinks go on till they 
perhaps have made the circuit of the park and worked back to their original position. 
These are the high old times of youth before nature reminds the prospective mothers of the 
stern realities of life, and that their figures are not quite what they were a month or two 
previously. A fallow doe, though doubtless as devoted to her calf as a red hind, seldom 
displays the motherly concern of the latter when danger threatens. She is much more 
cunning, and will gallop right away from it and join the herd sooner without hanging round 
and ostensibly showing her distress, as the other species of deer will often do. I think too 
that fallow calves get on their legs quicker and can take care of themselves sooner than the 
red-deer calves. The fallow doe generally drops her calf in the first week in June, and in good 
seasons a little earlier ; she rarely has more than one, though sometimes there are two. 
Occasionally we hear of calves appearing, as in the case of red deer, in any of the succeeding 
months, even as late as November, but this is of course very rare. 
Excepting in a park which is public and the deer have people amongst them all day 
long, fallow deer usually become shy during the summer months, always evincing distrust 
and taking immediate alarm if anything like real danger threatens. Food is abundant, so 
man can be avoided, and it is only on the approach of the rutting season that they once 
again become somewhat tame and indifferent to surroundings. 
The rutting season lasts a very short time, though the big bucks begin hustling one 
another about and trying their horns almost as soon as they are clean. One seldom sees a 
really good set-to until a big buck has monopolised a bunch of does and another comes to try 
conclusions with him. About the first of October the necks of the big bucks swell greatly, 
and they become more and more unsettled amongst themselves till the 25th of that month, 
when we generally hear the first calls. The rutting cry of the fallow buck is neither 
melodious nor awe-inspiring like the yawning roar of a stag. It is half a grunt and half a 
deep-toned bark, and can be heard at a distance of two miles if the day is still. When the 
buck produces this sound the head is not held aloft and neck stretched, as with the stag, or 
in any position, as with the roe. It is kept if anything below its normal angle, and jerked 
upwards slightly as the call is emitted. When very savage the buck will sometimes trot 
