i6o 
British Deer and their Horns 
It is hardly necessary to describe the typical park fallow deer’s head beyond saying that 
the constant tines are brow, tray, and a third tine at the back, above which, on the posterior 
margin of the palm, are a number of small points, which culminate in a long point bending 
forward, and generally situated second or third from the front tine, which itself curves down¬ 
ward and inward. 
It is a curious fact that although it is so common to see in parks perfectly formed red- 
deer heads of twelve or fourteen points, a really good fallow buck’s head that is perfectly 
formed, well grown, and typical is now quite a rarity. There are very few parks where the 
heads are really good, because few people take sufficient interest in their deer to prevent bad- 
HORNS OF FALLOW BUCKS (wARNHAM) DURING THE SUCCESSIVE YEARS 
headed bucks taking the rut, or study their other requirements. We see plenty of deer 
whose actual weight of horn-growth is quite sufficient to be spread out in well-shaped heads, 
but in forty-nine cases out of fifty the points along the posterior margin are only just 
indicated on the edge, or put forth in such blunt ungraceful knobs that they entirely destroy 
the artistic grace of the whole. Nine men out of ten have probably never seen a really good 
buck’s head, and become accustomed to the inferior article. Were you to speak to them 
about the points on a fallow deer’s horns they would only laugh and say that knobs and 
excrescences did not count for points, and clubs of horn with the ends worn and knocked about 
were scarcely things of beauty. This is, of course, all very true, but then again there are 
heads finely shaped, rough, and having all the points properly developed in their proper order 
if you only know where to look for them. Then again, taste itself takes extraordinary forms. 
Many do not care for heads of animals with palmated horns, whilst a friend of mine, and a 
