RED DEER AND FALLOW DEER IN WINTER.
The pairing season occupies the early part of October. The calves are born at the end of May or the beginning of June; whilst the Stags drop their antlers between the end of February and the earlier days of April, the youngest latest. Up till the age of twelve the animal continues to increase in bulk and strength, and it is highly probable that they do not ever much outlive twenty years, although superstition credits them with very many more.
It is towards the end of August or the beginning of September that the well-nourished Stags, having already cleared their antlers of their “velvet,” leave their retirement, and with swollen necks as well as restless mien, seek out the hinds. During the rutting season, which lasts about three weeks, they eat but little, and lose weight rapidly, to be regained in the subsequent repose upon the summer-developed foliage. In the southern counties of Great Britain the hunting of the Stag has degenerated into the repeated chase of a few individuals, deprived of their antlers, and let out of boxes shortly before the sportsmen put in an appearance; whilst long-ranged rifles have reduced the difficulties of what not many years ago—more especially in Scotland—was a form of sport which very severely taxed the physical capacities of the most determined and courageous.
RED DEER FIGHTING.
The WAPITI, the PERSIAN, the CASHMERIAN, and the BARBARY DEER resemble the Red Deer in almost every detail except size, the first and second being considerably larger. Their antlers all branch in the same manner, except that the proportionate sizes of some of the snags are apt to vary. Superb heads of Wapiti are numerous in Great Britain, with their brown beams and white burnished tips.
The Wapiti is kept in confinement without difficulty, although in autumn the stags become savage. Its home is the woodlands and the mountains of North America, where it is generally incorrectly called the “Elk.” Stalking the species is a common sport, but there is not so much interest associated with it as with Moose-stalking, because it is a more stupid creature, and its senses are less acutely developed. When started, a herd will make off for a short distance, and stop to recognise the source of danger before continuing its flight. Its food is mostly leaves of trees and shrubs, though it frequently eats grass and weeds. Dr. J. D. Caton, of Ottawa, Illinois, who has had much experience in the preserving of American Deer, has published many interesting details with regard to this species. Among others he mentions, with reference to the young, that “the most prominent instinct of the young fawn is that of deception. I have several times come across fawns evidently but a few hours old, left by the mother in supposed security. They affect death to perfection, only they forget to shut their eyes. They lie without a motion, and if you pick them up they are as limp as a wet rag, the head and limbs hanging down without the least muscular action, the bright eye fairly sparkling all the time.” The venison is excellent; it is said to be more nutritious than any other meat.
The Persian Deer, or Marāl, differs from the Cashmerian Deer but little. Its head, however, is longer and more pointed.