would defy any expert living to prove they were not home-grown and pure-blooded wild
ones.
Park deer make big wallows, which are mostly used by stags and hinds alike in spring
to free their coats from the old hair, the bain de marais generally taking place at night.
Very often in a large enclosure quite a young stag will isolate himself from the others.
He is to be seen alone at all times, and makes his resting-place and feeding-ground apart
from the rest. In the opinion o f one who has kept deer all his life, and is also a keen
observer, stags which thus dissociate themselves from their fellows at an early age invariably
turn out first-class animals, and probably the best in the place. He maintains that this
early independence o f character is a sure sign o f future greatness.
It may seem extraordinary that deer should ever dié o f hydrophobia, but there can
be no doubt as to the fact. In the Field o f 21st March 1896 one who is evidently an
expert gives so interesting an account o f this malady and how it is spread that I make no
apology for quoting his words at length. He says—
Rabies among deer occurs now and then from the incursion or a rabid dog, and in most cases the
attack is unnoticed; in fact, no suspicion is aroused until the animals are found to be dying in
considerable numbers from some mysterious malady. It might at first seem impossible for deer to get
bitten by a rabid dog, but it is known to keepers that a doe with a fawn will go out o f its way to attack
a dog, and a rabid animal would not be likely to miss such an opportunity o f inflicting a bite.
The symptoms which have been observed in several outbreaks among deer in the course o f the last
ten or twelve years were pointing the nose upwards and constantly sniffing, rubbing the forehead against
trees, running wildly about and at other deer. In some instances keepers, while watching deer which
they looked upon as suspected animals, were suddenly and furiously charged by them, and it was found
necessary to shoot them.
It is not usual for cattle, sheep, or deer to use their teeth much as weapons, but they have sometimes
been seen to bite at others ; and rabid deer have been observed to use their teeth in a curious manner.
It happened that in one outbreak the disease persisted, notwithstanding that all the deer which were seen
to indicate signs o f rabies were immediately shot. This state o f things suggested some means o f infection
which had not been provided for ; accordingly a very close watch was kept, and two facts were discovered
which quite explained the mystery.
Among the first symptoms o f illness o f any kind among gregarious animals is the tendency to get
away from companions. This symptom had been observed, and deer so acting were at once suspected.
It was further noticed that the sick deer became an object o f curiosity to its companions, who came
stealthily up to it, and when it was seen to grasp a mouthful o f hay or grass, some o f the deer near it
immediately seized the food and pulled it out o f its mouth. Another peculiarity was seen in the
behaviour o f the sick animals, which suddenly developed a desire to nibble at the skin o f any o f the
deer which came near them. There was no violence in the action to excite alarm or resistance ; the deer
merely rubbed its teeth gently against the skin, and continued the movement until it could be seen,that a
decided abrasion, attended with slight haemorrhage, was the result. By two methods o f inoculation,
therefore, the infection was communicated from rabid deer to the healthy animals.
There could be no doubt that the rubbing or nibbling at the sides o f a healthy deer was a certain
method o f communicating the disease. Pulling a tuft o f hay from the mouth o f a rabid deer and
swallowing it would be dangerous only in the very probable event o f a minute wound existing in the
mucous membrane o f the digestive organs, but the process o f gently gnawing the skin by a rabid deer
would constitute the most perfect method o f inoculation that could be devised.
Albinoes, or parti-coloured varieties o f wild animals, when kept in confinement seldom
make such a fine appearance as those o f the normal colour; but this, I think, cannot be
said o f the white Red deer kept in several parts o f England. Sir Robert Harvey has the
largest collection at Langley, near Slough. Mr. Whitaker gives the number as thirty-five.
In Cranbourne Park, an enclosure o f the great park at Windsor, and belonging to Her
Majesty the Queen, there is to-day a herd of thirty o f these animals, while Woburn has
eighteen, and at Ashbridge there is only one left. A t Welbeck, in the White Park there
were in March 1896, when I visited it and took photographs, two white stags, three
brockets, and eight hinds and calves. One o f the stags was a splendid fellow, his head
rivalling any o f those o f his albino predecessors hanging in Welbeck.
These Welbeck deer have pink noses and straw-coloured eyes. Strictly speaking, their
coats are somewhat of a dirty cream colour, being not nearly so white as those o f the white
fallow deer in the same park, though when standing against dark trees with the sun shining
on them they show some approximation to white.
The origin o f the white deer in this country seems to be unknown. They probably
came from some o f the German princes or kings o f Denmark, who have always had some
albinoes o f this description. T h e King o f Denmark gave the late Marquis o f Breadalbane
some partial albinoes. T hey were turned out at Taymouth, and their only descendants left
are two bald-faced hinds which live in the sanctuary at Black Mount, where I have seen
them on several occasions.
The Duke o f Portland, to whose kindness I am indebted for being able to give the
pictures o f the white deer here produced, takes a great interest in this particular herd, and
endeavours to keep up the purity o f the breed as far as possible. Unfortunately, however,
a few seasons ago an ordinary coloured stag managed to clear the high fence several times
during the rutting season, and jumped back again without being discovered. The result was,
o f course, several parti-coloured calves, which had to be removed.
One would scarcely think it possible that so small an animal as the Japanese deer could
mate with the red deer hind, but it has actually happened in several British parks where
Japs are now kept. Lord Powerscourt has bred no less than four o f these hybrids, all males,
two o f which— really splendid little fellows— I had the pleasure o f seeing in February 1896.
Curiously enough, one seemed to take entirely after the male parent, and the other after the
female. There was no question about their warlike disposition ; they were more than a
match for the best Red stag in the park ; and a hybrid shot by his Lordship two seasons
previously had assassinated the two best Red stags before retribution overtook him.
Japanese deer, which, by the way, above all others, should never be allowed to become the
least tame, are also kept at Leonardslee (Sir Edmund Loder), Colebrooke (Sir Douglas
Brooke), and Melbury (the Earl o f Ilchester). Their venison is delicious, and they increase
more rapidly and are hardier than any foreign deer in existence.
Wapiti would do well in this country on a dry soil like that o f the Downs, but, so far
as I am aware, no one has tried them there. Lord Powerscourt kept them for some years
at his seat in County Wicklow, but the stags eventually became savage and had to be
destroyed. A t present only Sir Peter Walker and Mr. Naylor-Leyland have these grand
beasts in their parks, but I gather from Sir Arthur Grant that he is about to try to cross