BUCK
—the male of the fallow deer. In his first year he is called a fawn; he is then a pricket; and lastly A BUCK. In colour they are mottled, sandy, or a deep dingy brown, approaching to black. The males have horns; the does none. Buck venison is very superior to doe; and when well fatted, sells from three to four guineas each haunch. The season for it in the highest perfection is from June to September.
Buck hunting—has been of late years but little practised, very few of them affording chase enough to render it a matter of much sporting attraction; particularly if bred in a park, whence, from its being so much accustomed to the sight of the human frame, it becomes in some degree like a kind of domestic animal. They were much hunted by the late and great (Culloden) Duke of Cumberland; but with his hounds (called buck hounds) he drew for and roused his outlying deer in Cranbourne Chace, near Windsor Great Park. When found in this way, they frequently went away well across the country, and sometimes afforded tolerable sport. The bucks shed their horns (called heads) annually in April or May, which, with the skins of both bucks and does killed within the year, (if a park is large,) make no inconsiderable perquisite to the keeper.