There are two other distinct species of deer, viz. the red deer and the roe; but they are now seldom kept in parks in England. The red deer is abundant in Scotland, and hunting it and shooting it with a rifle, which last is called deer-stalking, are two favourite sports with the Scotch landed proprietors. The male of the red deer is called a stag, the female a hind, and the young a calf. The stag, when young, is sometimes called a brocket, and when it is more than six years old it is called a hart, and, if it belongs to a royal chase, a hart-royal. It stands about four feet high from the shoulder, and one has been known to weigh upwards of thirty stone when killed. The roe is the smallest of the deer kind, seldom standing more than two feet high, measuring from the shoulder. It is very common in a wild state in Scotland, particularly on the banks of Loch Lomond, but it is very seldom met with in parks. The male of the roe is called a roebuck; the female, a roe; and the young, a fawn; and these creatures do not live in herds like the other deer, but in families of from ten to twenty each.
The natural process by which the horns of deer are renewed every year is extremely curious, The time when the change takes place varies in the different kinds of deer: those of the stag, and of the buck of the fallow deer, fall off in spring, and are renewed in summer; but those of the roebuck fall off in autumn, and are renewed in winter. Very soon after the old horns fall off, a soft tumour appears which is covered with a velvet-like down, and this downy skin remains on the horns as they shoot upwards, and divide into antlers. The horns have at this time a very singular appearance, as the soft downy skin with which they are covered is completely intersected with blood-vessels which are designed by nature to supply nourishment to the horns, and the furrows formed by the largest of which may always be afterwards traced in the horn itself. When the horns have attained their full growth, the velvet skin with its blood-vessels begins to dry up; and the stags at this season become very injurious to trees, as they are continually rubbing their horns against the bark, in order to get rid of the skin, which has become troublesome to them. It is a singular thing, that, though stags shed their horns every year, the old horns are scarcely ever found; and it is generally supposed that the animals bury them as soon as they fall off. The horns grow with very great rapidity, and a pair weighing twenty-five pounds have been known to be formed in ten weeks.
Deer are included in the beasts subject to the forest laws of England, the others being the fox and the marten, and according to some the wild boar; and there are certain laws still extant respecting these beasts which are very curious, and which make it penal to kill them at any but the proper seasons. Formerly, indeed, killing a deer unlawfully was considered a more heinous offence than killing a man.
[LETTER XV.]
INHABITANTS OF THE POULTRY-YARD.—FOWLS, TURKEYS, GUINEA FOWLS, GEESE, DUCKS, AND PIGEONS.—PEACOCKS AND HENS.—DISEASES OF POULTRY, AND THEIR CURE.
My hints for teaching you how to enjoy a country life would be sadly deficient if I were to omit poultry, as the duties of attending on them are so completely feminine, that even in farm-houses they are entirely under the care of females; and, indeed, few artists or authors would think a picture of rural life complete, if they did not introduce into it the image of a fair young girl feeding poultry. I have just been reading a description of this kind in Miss Bremer's beautiful story of Strife and Peace, and it has pleased me so much, and seems so appropriate, that I cannot resist the temptation of quoting it.
"The morning was fresh and clear. The September sun shone brightly into the valley; smoke rose from the cottages. The lady-mantles in whose channelled cups clear pearls trembled, the silver weed with its yellow flowers and silver-bright leaves, grew along a little footpath which wound round the base of a moss-grown hill. It conducted to a spring of the clearest water, which, after forming a little pond, led its silver stream, dancing and murmuring, to the river. On this beautiful morning Susanna approached the spring; and in her train came 'cock and hen, and chicken small.' Before her waddled a troop of geese, gabbling noisily, and all white but one—a grey one. The grey goose walked with a timid, hesitating air, a little behind the others, compelled to retain this position by a tyrant in the white flock, who drove him back with outstretched neck and loud cry whenever he attempted to approach the rest. None of the other geese concerned themselves about their ill-used companion, but Susanna took it under her especial protection, and did all in her power to console it for the injustice of its kind. After the geese came the demure but clumsy ducks; the petulant turkey-cock, with his awkward dames, one white and one black; and last, the turbulent race of chickens, with their stately pugnacious cocks. The prettiest of all the party were a flock of pigeons, who timidly, but confidently at the same time, now alighted on Susanna's shoulder and outstretched hand, and now rose in the air and flew in shining circles round her head; then dropping to the earth, tripped on their little fringed feet, to drink at the spring; while the geese, with loud noise, plunged splashing into the river, and threw the water over the grass in a pearly shower."
I must now, however, return from the region of poetry to plain matter of fact.