Fallow deer

“ I understand that in India or in Africa, where there are hundreds of different sorts of deer, the real fallow is not to be found. While shooting at a place called Camaris, near to Gallipoli, two years since, I discovered several herds of these deer, beautiful creatures, wild as hawks, and accordingly laid myself out to shoot some of them if possible. I tried driving, stalking, and every manœuvre to circumvent them, without success. At last one day I started with my beaters to a place where there were many tracks of fallow deer. ”

“ One park-breed has no spots. Bucks and does live apart except during the pairing-season; and the doe produces one or two, and sometimes three fawns at a birth. These deer are particularly fond of horse-chestnuts, which the stags are said to endeavour to procure by striking at the branches with their antlers. The Persian fallow-deer (C. [D.] mesopotamicus) , a native of the mountains of Luristan, is larger than the typical species, and has a brighter coat, differing in some details of colouring. ”

“ The habitat of this species is North-eastern Manchuria and the borders of Korea.
Fallow Deer.
Fallow Deer are, perhaps, to English people, the most familiar of all the cervine race, forming as they do, in the semi-domesticated state, the adornments of most of our parks. The flesh of this handsome deer furnishes the well-known venison of this country, and is perhaps the best-tasted of all deer-meat. A good fallow buck stands about 3 feet at the shoulder, and weighs (clean) about 150 lbs., though specimens have been shot weighing as much as 204 lbs., but this is exceptional. ”

“ But as the fallow-deer itself was an acclimatized animal, of comparatively recent introduction, it came to be a question why might not the proprietor of any deer-park in England have the luxury of at least half a dozen species of deer and antelopes, to adorn the hills, dales, ferny brakes and rich pastures of his domain? The temperate regions of the whole world might be made to yield specimens of the noble ruminant, valuable either for their individual beauty, or for their availability to gastronomic purposes. ”

“ Fallow-deer, Subgenus Dama.—Antlers without a bez, but with a trez-tine, above which the beam is more or less palmated, and generally furnished with numerous snags; coat of adult spotted in summer, uniform in winter, with black and white markings in the region of the tail similar to those of Pseudaxis; young, spotted. Mediterranean region, but more widely spread in Europe during the Pleistocene epoch, and also introduced into many European countries. ”

“ As well as in Moravia, the Fallow Deer seems, in olden times, to have existed on the borders of Lower Austria. In Pulkau, not far from Eggenburg, south of the Thaya, in an ancient place of sacrifice, discovered and described by Dr. Woldrich, were found earthen vessels, implemenls of stone, bone and horn, a bronze casting-mould, the remains of the dog, ox, and red deer, and a piece of horn that was conjectured to be "the tine of a Fallow Deer's antler." ”

“ But Gass in his book also says something I want you to remember, for it may help explain the ‘fallow’ deer which Clark mentions, and which I don’t understand at all. Gass says: ‘There is another species of deer in this country, with small horns and long tails. The tail of one we killed was 18 inches long.’ Now that precisely coincides with the ‘fantail’ deer which some old-time hunters of my acquaintance say [Pg 94] they have killed in the Black Hills country, though scientists say there never was any fantail deer. Our men were now right east of the Black Hills. ”

“ No two animals can make a more near approach to each other than the stag and the fallow deer, and yet no two animals keep more distinct, or avoid each other with more fixed animosity; they never herd or intermix together, and consequently never give rise to an intermediate race. It is even rare, unless they have been transported thither, to find fallow-deer in a country where stags are numerous. ”

“ Like the fallow deer, it produces spotted fawns, which are brought forth in the spring, and change their colour to that of the deer itself in the first winter. About the month of November they gather into herds, and remain together until April, when they separate, the females secreting themselves to bring forth their young.
“The long-tailed deer is often found in wooded countries; though its favourite haunts are not amid the heavy timber of the great forests, but in the park-like openings that occur in many parts of the Rocky Mountain valleys. ”

“ Jeitteles that the Fallow Deer inhabited Northern and Central Europe in the pleistocene and prehistoric ages. The point, to say the very least, is non-proven. On the other hand, the non-discovery of certain relics of the animal by the many able naturalists who have examined vast quantities of fossil remains from those regions, implies, to my mind, the probability that the animal was not then in those parts of Europe. The value of negative evidence depends upon the number of observations, which in this case is enormous. ”

“ In those woods where fallow deer are preserved in a wild state, as on many of the German Emperor's sporting-estates, the mule-deer would be a far more ornamental animal. Few people know what immense herds of red and fallow deer, as well as of wild boars, still exist, under careful preservation, in the forests of the great German, Austrian, and Russian princes, and in the royal forests of their respective countries. ”

“ The little deer is already covered with fur, and its back and sides are dappled with white after the manner of the Fallow Deer, though unlike the livery of that species the spotting of the Red Deer is not retained beyond calfhood. The calf is born with some intelligence also. ”

“ They receive it on account of the colour of the hair upon the upper side of their tail-tips, which is of a jetty blackness, and is very full and conspicuous.
The two species have been often confounded with each other, though in many respects they are totally unlike. The black-tails are larger, their legs shorter and their bodies more “chunky,” and altogether of stouter build. In running, they bound with all their feet raised at once; while those of the long-tailed species run more like the common fallow deer—by trotting a few steps, then giving a bound, and trotting as before. ”

“ There might not be any gold mines, but there was unlimited timber, and the meadows would make as good pasture for cattle as any in England. In the forests were red deer and fallow deer, bears, otters, beavers, and foxes, besides animals unknown in Europe. One moonlight night, while examining deer tracks near a little stream, Smith saw humped on a fallen log above it a furry beast about the size of a badger, with black face and paws like a bear, and a bushy tail with crosswise rings of brown and black. ”

“ Large herds are to be found there among the mountains, but the greatest caution and skill are needed to get near enough to have a shot at them without being observed. Of course the deer we see in parks are comparatively tame: they are generally fallow deer ”

“ I think there is somewhat greater disparity of size between the male and female of this speceis than there is between the male and female fallow deer; I am convinced I have seen a buck of this species twice the volume of a buck of any other species. the ears are peculiarly large; I measured those of a large buck which I found to be eleven inches long and 31/2 in width at the widest part; they are not so delicately formed, their hair in winter is thicker longer and of a much darker grey, in summer the hair is still coarser longer and of a paleer red, more like that of the Elk ”

“ To speak personally, I am in the position of a man waiting for satisfactory proof, holding that up to the present time the common Fallow Deer "has never been found to occur in the fossil state in Northern and Central Europe. The animal ought to be found fossil in those regions ”

“ The four-tined elk-horn is figured (pl. v., fig. 8) , but unfortunately not the pieces of Fallow Deer's horns. Besides the remains of animals and plants, these places of sacrifice yielded various fashioned bones, three needles, fragments of battle-axes, pieces of urns, four entire vessels, and a polished shin-bone of an ox. Dr. Wagner also recognised therein a skate and other bones beautifully polished. No human bones were found. As regards the Fallow Deer, Dr. ”

“ Does may be killed younger; and if they have had no fawns, or have been soon deprived of them, they are in season from the middle of November to the middle of February.
Deers are ruminating animals, and, after they have filled the first stomach, they go under the shade of trees to chew the cud. When snow is on the ground fallow deer are generally fed; as, if they are not, they are apt to do a great deal of mischief to the trees in the park, by tearing down the branches. When they are fed it is with cut [Pg 326] hay and straw, mixed with young shoots of underwood. ”

“ The warblers amid the sedges and the fringe of alders along the course of the winding stream filled the air with soft music, not less sweet, if less powerful, than that of the nightingale pouring out his heart in song a little farther away. Sometimes a sleeping deer in some deep hollow sprang up almost from beneath their feet, and dashed, phantom-like, away into the dim aisles of the wood. ”

“ By the same token was revealed his past prowess: only an animal that had surpassed in all the wiles of hunting and self-preservation could live to attain such a growth. But to-night—the deer had fled from him before he ever got within leaping range.
The wind had been right, the thickets had hidden his advance, the magic and the thrill of the hunting hour had been upon him. No human ear could have discerned his approach on the winding trail. But the difficulty lay in the fact that the deer have not human ears, but rather marvelous receivers as sensitive as the antennæ of a wireless outfit. ”

“ The fawns when found very young in the woods are generally full of playfulness and curiosity; and a fawn that has lost its mother will turn to a man quicker than to any other animal. When deer see you for the first time, no matter how [257] old or young they are, they approach cautiously, if you do not terrify them by sudden motions, and in twenty pretty ways try to find out what you are. Like most wild animals that have a keen sense of smell, and especially like the bear and caribou, they trust only their noses at first. ”

“ The boy starts to his feet—and his keen eye looks along the ready rifle—for his sires had all been famous deer-stalkers, [Pg 398] and the passion of the chase was hereditary in his blood, Lo! a deer from Dalness, hound-driven or sullenly astray, slowly bearing his antlers up the glen, then stopping for a moment to snuff the air, and then away—away! The rifle-shot rings dully from the scarce echoing snow-cliffs, and the animal leaps aloft, struck by a certain but not sudden death-wound. Oh! for Fingal now to pull him down like a wolf! ”

“ Hence, when a grisly does take to game-killing, it is likely to attack bison, moose, and elk; it is rarely able to catch deer, still less sheep or antelope. In fact these smaller game animals often show but little dread of its neighborhood, and, though careful not to let it come too near, go on grazing when a bear is in full sight. Whitetail deer are frequently found at home in the same thicket in which a bear has its den, while they immediately desert the temporary abiding place of a wolf or cougar. ”

“ The alarm-cry of this deer is a peculiar whistling bark, a low but far-reaching sound; but when approaching a doe with young I have never been able to hear it, nor have I seen any movement on the part of the doe. Yet it is clear that in some mysterious way she inspires the fawn with sudden violent fear; while the fawn, on its side, instead of being affected like the young in other mammals, and sticking closer to its mother, acts in a contrary way, and runs from her. ”

“ No one shall take an egg or bird of any falcon or hawk out of its nest on the King's land. No one may disguise himself with hidden or painted face to enter a forest or park enclosed with a wall for keeping deer to steal any deer or rabbit.
Ducks and geese shall not be taken with any net or device during the summer, when they haven't enough feathers to fly. But a freeholder of 40s. yearly may hunt and take such with long bow and spaniels. ”

“ Deer give beautiful animation to the forests, harmonizing finely in their color and movements with the gray and brown shafts of the trees and the swaying of the branches as they stand in groups at rest, or move gracefully and noiselessly over the mossy ground about the edges of beaver meadows and flowery glades, daintily culling the leaves and tips of the mints and aromatic bushes on which they feed. There are three species, the black-tailed, white-tailed, and mule deer; the last being restricted in its range to the open woods and plains to the eastward of the Cascades. ”

“ With this purpose, the deer will often make enormous leaps, or run around in a circle so as to confuse and puzzle his pursuers. He will mount a stone wall, and run along it for some distance, well aware that the dog cannot scent him so well on the rock as on the grass. If he can find a pond or stream of water, the deer will plunge in and swim a long distance, so that the dogs may lose his trail.
It is a joyful sound to the poor hunted deer when the dogs send up that sad, dismal howl, which they give utterance to when they have lost all scent of the deer, and despair of finding it. ”