Two features indicate that the red deer is what naturalists term a highly specialised animal. These are, firstly, the shortness of the tail, and, secondly, the white-spotted coat of the fawn, so utterly different from that of the adults of the typical western representative of the species. In the race inhabiting the Caucasus yellowish spots are, however, frequently observable in the coats of full-grown hinds, while similar spots may be developed in adult stags of the North African race,—the so-called Barbary deer. These features clearly indicate that the red deer is descended from a species which was fully spotted at all ages.
The range of the red deer includes, with the exception of the far north, practically the whole of Europe, as well as Asia Minor and part of Persia. From many parts of western Europe these splendid animals have, however, been exterminated; and in the British Isles they survive in a wild state only in Devon and Somerset, the highlands and isles of Scotland, and parts of Ireland. The red deer of the Caspian district and the neighbouring countries, commonly known (from its Persian name) as the maral, is a much larger and also a greyer animal, with heavier antlers, than its west European representative. The latter have been split up into several local races, which need not, however, be particularised in this place.
The food of the red deer varies considerably according to the time of year, and comprises grass and other herbage, corn, leaves and boughs, bark, acorns, chestnuts, funguses, lichens, and moss. In autumn, when living near cultivated ground, deer will dig up with their hoofs, potatoes, artichokes, and other edible roots.
The pairing-time commences early in September, and continues till the middle of October; and at this season, when they utter the well-known bellowing or roaring, the stags not only fight fiercely among themselves for the mastery of the herd, but are highly dangerous to human beings. At no time very amiable, the stags at this season are little better than incarnate fiends. Soon after the breeding-season the antlers are shed, to be replaced by new growths, covered at first with soft velvety skin, the following spring.
At the end of May or early in June the hind seeks a sequestered situation amid covert in which to give birth to her fawn. The fawns, of which there may occasionally be twins, are extremely helpless at birth, but in a short time gain sufficient strength to run by the side of their mothers.
THE BEAVER
(Castor fiber)
THE beaver enjoys the distinction of being the only warm-blooded quadruped that is in the habit of making really noticeable modifications in the appearance of the earth’s surface. Many quadrupeds, such as foxes, ant-bears, rabbits, and rats and mice burrow holes in the ground, while the mole marks the course of its subterranean tunnels by throwing up heaps of earth at intervals. But although such excavations and hillocks, when sufficiently numerous, may to a slight degree affect the appearance of a meadow, they are nothing in comparison to the changes brought in a valley by a colony of beavers. By throwing a dam across its course, these industrious rodents will convert a narrow stream into a wide sheet of stagnant water, which in the course of time may become silted up so as to form a broad and level “beaver-meadow,” where there was originally a rocky valley. In or near their dams beavers likewise construct dwellings of mud and clay, known in America as “lodges,” for their own accommodation.
But this is by no means all beavers accomplish in the way of “public works,” for, by means of the single pair of powerful chisel-like teeth in the fore part of each jaw and the powerful muscles by which the jaws themselves are worked, these animals, which are about the size of an ordinary spaniel, are enabled to fell trees of considerable size, which are used in the construction of their dams.
Beavers are the sole living representatives of a family of rodents allied on the one hand to squirrels and dormice, and on the other to rats and mice. Two structural peculiarities are very characteristic of these rodents. In the first place, one of the toes of the fore-foot is provided with a double claw, which may be used in dressing the beautiful, long brown fur; a similar structure occurring in the smaller rodent known as the Arctic lemming (Dicrostonyx torquatus). Secondly, there is the remarkable flattened, scaly tail, which almost looks as though it did not belong to the animal, although in reality, except for its superior size, it is not much more abnormal than the scaly cylindrical tail of the rat. Several myths attach to the beaver’s tail; it was said, for instance, to be employed as a trowel for plastering down the mud used in building the dams and lodges, although its real use is to act as a rudder in swimming, more especially when its owner is transporting the trunk of a felled tree. When entering the water, or when engaged in playing therein, the beaver frequently makes a resounding “smack” by striking the surface with its tail.