(_Cervus elaphus_)
The red deer, the typical representative of the family _Cervidæ_, is
the largest and handsomest European member of that group, although it
attains its maximum development in point of bodily size and massiveness
of antlers only in eastern Europe and south-western Asia. As in most
members of the deer tribe inhabiting temperate countries, there is
considerable seasonal difference in the colour of the coat, and the
fawns differ remarkably in this respect from their parents. There are
also distinctions in colour between the various local races of the
species. The ordinary name refers to the fact that in summer a more or
less distinct rufous colour prevails on the upper-parts. Here it may be
remarked that deer do not in most cases present that marked contrast
between the upper and the lower surfaces of the body so characteristic
of gazelles and many other members of the antelope group. And the
reason for this is not difficult to explain. As mentioned in the text
accompanying the plate of that species, the white under-parts of the
gazelle are for the purpose of counteracting the dark shadow thrown by
the body when standing in full sunlight, and thus to render the animal
inconspicuous. Deer, on the other hand, are in the main nocturnal and
forest-dwelling creatures, and this type of protective colouring would
therefore be useless in their case. The chital, or Indian spotted deer,
is, however, much less nocturnal than most species, and also feeds to
a great extent in the open; and it is interesting to notice that, in
accordance with such habits, this species is white-bellied.
Notable features in the red deer are the shortness of the tail, and the
straw-coloured patch on the buttocks in which that brief appendage is
included; the same features recurring in its near relative the wapiti.
As in all similar cases among ruminants, the light rump-patch serves
as a guide to the members of a herd; the place of this being taken
in certain other species, such as the fallow deer and the American
white-tailed deer, by the pure white under surface of the tail, which
is raised when the animals are running.
The antlers of the stag are characterised by the number and regular
arrangement of the tines; and more especially, in their fullest
development, by the duplication of the first, or brow, tine, and the
cup-like arrangement of the terminal snags.
[Illustration]
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.