[F] In Greek [Greek: pròx]; in Latin _dama_; in French _le daim_; in
Italian _daino_; in Spanish _daino_; in German _damhirsch_; in Swedish
_dof_, _dovhjort_; in Polish _lanii_.
No two animals can make a more near approach to each other than the
stag and the fallow-deer, and yet no two animals keep more distinct,
or avoid each other with more fixed animosity; they never herd or
intermix together, and consequently never give rise to an intermediate
race. It is even rare, unless they have been transported thither, to
find fallow-deer in a country where stags are numerous. They seem to
be of a nature less robust and less rustic than the stag; are less
common in the forests, but are kept in parks, where it may be said
they are half domestic. They abound more in England than in any other
country in Europe; and there the people are extremely partial to their
venison. The dogs also prefer the flesh of this deer to that of all
other animals; and having once tasted it, they will quit the chase of
the stag or roe, when they come across the track of a fallow-deer.
There are some of them in the neighbourhood of Paris, in some provinces
of France, Spain, and Germany, as also in America, where probably they
have been carried from Europe. It seems to be an animal formed for a
temperate climate, for there are not any in Russia, and are rarely met
with in Sweden, or any other northern country. Stags are much more
generally diffused. They are found throughout Europe, even in Norway,
and over all the north, Lapland, perhaps, excepted; in Asia, especially
in Tartary, they are numerous, as well as in the northern provinces of
China. They are likewise found in America; for those of Canada differ
only from ours in the height of their horns, and in the direction of
their antlers, which is sometimes not straight forward, as in the heads
of the common stags, but turned backward by a very evident inflection;
but this form of the horns is not confined to the Canadian stag,
as it is nearly the same in the Corsican stags; and some that came
from Russia and Germany, have a kind of crown at the summit of their
antlers, but these are only varieties, and not different species. There
are large and small stags in America as well as in Europe, and yet,
however diffused their species may be, they seem to be confined to cold
and temperate climates. The stags of Mexico, and other parts of South
America; those of Cayenne; those called stags of the Ganges, which are
spoken of by M. Perault, under the name of the Sardinian hinds; those
to which travellers have given the appellation of Cape stags; those of
Guinea, and other warm countries, belong not to the common species, as
will appear from the particular history we shall give of each of those
animals.
As the fallow-deer is less savage, more delicate, and indeed more
domestic than the stag, he is also subject to a greater number of
varieties. Besides the common and white fallow-deer, we know of several
other kinds, as those of Spain, which are almost as large as stags,
but whose necks are more slender, their colour darker, their tails
black underneath, and longer than those of the common deer; those
of Virginia, which are almost as large as those of Spain, and are
remarkable for the size of their genital organs. There are others with
compressed foreheads, whose ears and tails are longer than those of the
common fallow-deer, and who have the hoofs of their hind legs marked
with a white spot; others are spotted or streaked with white, black, or
yellow, and there are others entirely black, all of which have their
horns more flat, broad, and are better furnished with antlers than
those of the stag, they likewise incline more inwardly, and are more
palmated at the points. Of the common fallow-deer the tail is longer
than that of the stag, and its hair is lighter. The horns of the buck,
like those of the stag, are shed every year, and are nearly the same
time in being renewed; but as this change happens later, so is their
rutting season, by from fifteen days to three weeks later than that
of the stag. They are neither so furious at this time, nor exhaust
themselves so much by the violence of their ardour: they never quit
their own pastures in search of the females, though they will dispute
and fight furiously for the possession of them. It often happens, that
when there is a great number in one park they will divide into two
parties and engage each other with much resolution: these contests
generally occur from a wish they both have of grazing upon some
particular spot. Each of these parties has its own chief, namely, the
oldest and strongest in the herd. These lead on to the engagement, and
the rest follow under their direction. Their combats are singular, from
the conduct by which their efforts seem to be regulated; they attack
with order, and support the assault with courage; mutually assist each
other, retire, rally, and never yield the victory upon a single defeat;
for the battle is daily renewed till the weakest party are quite
defeated, from which time they are obliged to retire to some secluded
part of the park, and be contented with the worst pasturage. They love
elevated and hilly countries. When hunted they do not fly far before
the hounds, like the stag, but study entirely how to escape from the
dogs by stratagem; when pressed and heated they will plunge into the
water, though it is very rare that they will take to a great river. In
the chace, therefore, between the fallow-deer and the stag, there is
no essential difference; their instincts and artifices are the same,
though more put into practice by the former; which, together with the
lightness of his step, render it more difficult for the dogs to avoid
being deceived.
The fallow-deer is easily tamed and feeds upon many things which the
stag refuses; he also preserves his venison better; nor does it appear
that the rutting, followed by a long and severe winter, exhausts him,
but he continues nearly in the same state throughout the year. He
browzes closer than the stag, for which reason he is more prejudicial
to young trees, and often strips them too close for recovery. The young
deer eat faster and with more avidity than the old. At the second year
they seek the female, and, like the stag, are fond of variety. The
doe goes with young eight months and some days; she commonly produces
one fawn, sometimes two, but very rarely three. They are capable of
engendering at the age of two years to that of fifteen or sixteen; and
in fine, they resemble the stag in all his natural habits, and the
greatest difference between them is the duration of their lives. From
the testimony of hunters it has been remarked that stags live to the
age of 35 or 40 years, and from the same authority we understand that
the fallow-deer does not live more than 20. As they are smaller than
the stag, it is probable that their growth is soon completed. In all
animals the duration of life is proportioned to that of the growth, and
not to that of gestation, for here the gestation is the same; and in
other species, as the ox, though the time of gestation be long, that of
the duration of life is very short; whence it follows that we ought not
to calculate the duration of life by the time of gestation, but by that
which Nature has required for perfecting the growth, reckoning from the
birth to the almost entire expansion of the body.