The red deer to be found on the Continent of Europe can, broadly speaking, be divided into two families: those inhabiting the more or less isolated forests on the great plains of Central and Northern Europe, and those making the mountainous regions of South-Eastern Europe, chiefly in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, their home. Whilst it is not always easy to draw a topographical line of demarcation between plains and mountains, this broad subdivision has a great deal to do with the explanation of the fact that the mountain stag has, in the course of the two or three last centuries, deteriorated less than has the stag of the plains.

The retrogression of the latter has been much greater than is generally supposed, and it is not till one has investigated the abundant evidence placed at the disposal of those having the necessary opportunities for research that the vast decrease in numbers and deterioration in the size of the animal and of its proud trophy are brought home to one. Months of interesting study are afforded by the perusal in German archives of the shooting diaries of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, a period when, as is well known, the love for the noble art of venery swayed the great territorial lords and potentates of Germany, France and Austria to an all-absorbing degree of which it is difficult to form a correct idea in these days of responsible government. Such study of old diaries, kept as a rule with far greater punctilious care and method than was bestowed upon the most important papers of state, brings to light narratives of sport and details about the animals themselves which make comparison with the puny forms, shrunken number, and dwarfed antlers of to-day a matter of suggestive interest. To cite only one instance: is it not startling to read that the Elector of Saxony killed in forty-five years (1611 to 1656)—during which, we must not forget, the Thirty Years’ War was ravaging Germany—no fewer than 47,239 head of red deer, of which 24,563 were stags? Amongst them there were:

1stag ofthirtypoints
1”twenty-eight”
1”twenty-six”
3”twenty-four”
9”twenty-two”
24”twenty”
131”eighteen”
373”sixteen”
1,192”fourteen”

whilst as to weight the following figures tell their own story: the heaviest stag (killed somewhat early in the season, August 17, 1646), weighed 61 stone 11 lbs., fifty-nine stags exceeded 56 stone, 651 exceeded 48 stone, 2,679 exceeded 40 stone, and 4,139 exceeded 32 stone. It is interesting to compare with these figures the bag of the descendant of the above potentate—i.e. the late Duke of Saxe-Coburg, an equally keen sportsman, with opportunities, in comparison, much the same as his great ancestor. He, as we find from compilations placed at the writer’s disposal, killed in forty-nine years (1837 to 1886) 3,283 red deer, of which 2,316 were stags, and of these there were one of 24 points, two of 22, four of 20, eight of 18, and 164 of 16 and 14 points; whilst in respect to weight, the best forests of Germany did not return a single stag equal to that of the lowest in the Elector George’s list, i.e. 32 stone. If deterioration continues at the same rate, the descendants of the Duke of Edinburgh, who has now succeeded to the throne of this doughty race of Nimrods, will have to be satisfied with stags of proportions akin to those of the dwarf deer of other continents, which a strong man can hold out at arm’s length.

Such deterioration as the above has not occurred with the mountain stag, for we find that in Northern Hungary and adjacent Bukowina giants of the red deer species, ranging in weight from 35 to 40 stone (clean) are obtainable to this day, while their heads, if not exhibiting such an abnormally large number of tines as those to be found in the great historical collections of antlers of the Continent, where heads up to 66 points are to be seen, are nevertheless as heavy in the beam and as wide spreading almost as the best which the sixteenth century produced. Moreover, one must not forget when examining these famous old collections that they represent a zeal in sport and, in most instances, a lavishness almost incomprehensible in these modern utilitarian days; a lavishness which in many instances wrecked the finances of the ruler and of his country. History tells us that one enthusiast gave a full battalion of his tallest grenadiers for a single pair of antlers two centuries ago, while another offered a sum corresponding to 5,000l. for another famous head, and offered it, moreover, in vain. These are two instances of what perhaps to our remote descendants may possibly not seem a more extraordinary proceeding than the purchase of a few square feet of painted canvas for fifteen times that sum.

If we search for the reason why the stag of the plains has lost so much more ground than his brother from the hills, we come upon the same factor which has worked so much havoc in Scotland, i.e. inbreeding. The forests of Central and Northern Europe (often tracts of enormous extent) were nevertheless much more isolated from other breeding grounds than is the whole system of the South European Alps, where nature has always provided fresh blood with far greater regularity than could possibly be the case in detached forests.

To-day by far the largest heads and heaviest stags are to be found in the mountainous regions of Northern Hungary, where are situated many great sporting estates of the Austrian aristocracy, which afford sport such as is probably to be found nowhere else in the civilised world.

Confining himself to the bags of the last ten years or so, the writer can give the following details. The heaviest stags of all are shot at the famous Munkacs estate of Count Schoenborn, in the Carpathian Alps, where stags with a clean weight of 40 stone 8 lbs. have been killed in the last decade. Their heads are, however, so it is generally averred, not better than those of stags in the adjacent Pilis Mountains and other regions in the Carpathians. The accompanying sketch (No. 1) is an accurate representation of the upper part of a pair of antlers of a stag killed at Radauc in 1882 by Prince Rohan; they are of the following very remarkable dimensions: length of right antler 49⁶⁄₁₀ ins., of left antler 48⁴⁄₁₀ ins. No. 2 sketch represents antlers of a stag shot in the Pilis Mountains in 1884 by the present Duke of Ratibor, the right antler measuring 49 ins., the left 50⁴⁄₁₀ ins., while the spread from tip to tip at widest point is 55⁹⁄₁₀ ins. This is enormous. The remarkable expanse of the crown of a stag shot on the Jolsva estates (Hungary) in 1884 by Prince Philipp of Saxe-Coburg Gotha is shown in sketch No. 3, where the extreme distance between the two most prominent tines forming the crown a to b tapes 20⁹⁄₁₀ ins.