Part 11

Alternatively known as the Scottish or Variable Hare, the present species is intermediate in size between the Brown Hare and the Rabbit. The first name has reference to the fact that it is indigenous only in Scotland and the neighbouring isles. It has been introduced into England and Wales, but except in the northern counties and some of the Welsh mountains has not established itself. The name Variable Hare denotes its change of hue at the beginning of winter after the manner of the Stoat. In Cheshire it is known as White Hare. Respecting this winter whitening of the fur, fierce controversies raged for many years; one school contending that it was due to a complete moulting of the summer fur, as a new growth without colour was produced. The opposition claimed that there was only one moult--in spring--to get rid of the too conspicuous white coat as the snow with which it harmonised melted away. They contended that the old hairs became altered individually by the abstraction of pigment, or by the development of air-bubbles. Evidence which was considered conclusive was brought forward by both sides, and opponents remained unconvinced. In the early days of the twentieth century, however, Metchnikoff showed that the senile whitening of human hair was due to the activity of certain motile cells, which he termed chromophages or colour-eaters, which remove the pigment granules and consume them. At a later date he showed that the same process caused the whitening of the hairs in the Scottish Hare, and of the feathers of the Ptarmigan--which undergoes a similar change of colour. It is noteworthy that the black tips of the ears, like the black tip of the tail in the Stoat, never change colour.

As already stated, the Alpine Hare is smaller than the Brown Hare, the combined length of head and body being about twenty inches, but the head is proportionately larger, the ears and tail shorter, and the legs longer. The fur is more woolly and of a duskier tint in summer, the whiskers shorter and finer, the eyes rounder, and the hair on the underside of the foot softer. Behind the breast the under parts are white, and the tail wholly so. Another name--Blue Hare--is suggested by its appearance in autumn and spring, when the summer and winter tints are mingled in its fur. The coat becomes closer and longer in winter than it is in summer. Sometimes the winter coat is retained longer than usual, through some unexplained retarding of the spring moult. Black and buff variations have been recorded. The average weight is between five and six pounds.

The habits of the Alpine Hare are very similar to those of the Brown Hare; but it is less timid, and when alarmed clears off in a more leisurely and less excited manner. As contrasted with the nervous terror of the Brown Hare and Rabbit, the Alpine Hare may be said to be comparatively tame. Instead of making a form it hides in rock crevices and among stones where it may be sheltered from the sight of birds of prey overhead. Occasionally, and especially where there are no rocks, they excavate burrows a few feet in length in the hillside or into the peat-bank. In general its food is similar to that of the Brown Hare; but it is said to add lichens to its bill of fare in winter, and to grind up fir-cones in order to obtain the seeds.

Precise observation is still needed respecting the breeding habits of the Alpine Hare, but they do not appear to differ greatly from those of the Brown Hare, two or three litters being produced in the year, and the leverets varying in number up to eight.

*Irish Hare* (_Lepus hibernicus_, Bell).

The abundance of Hares in Ireland has been noticed in literature for more than a thousand years, but it was not until 1833 that it was suggested that the Irish Hare was anything more than a variation of the Brown Hare. Even so, until quite recently it has been accepted by most of the high authorities as, at best, a variety or sub-species of the Alpine Hare. It occurs naturally all over Ireland, and is not found elsewhere except where distinct attempts have been made to introduce it. Even in places where this introduction has succeeded in establishing colonies--as in the Island of Mull, where it runs with the Alpine Hare--it refuses to breed with other kinds. Barrett-Hamilton is satisfied that it is distinct, and probably a direct descendant of the extinct _Lepus anglicus_ whose remains are found in late Pleistocene rocks.

It is a larger beast than the Alpine Hare. The head and body average about twenty-three inches in length, and the tail about three inches. The ears slightly exceed the tail. The average weight is about seven pounds; but exceptionally exceeds nine, and in one case ten pounds has been recorded. It has russet fur, not smoky brown or "blue" as in the Alpine Hare; its winter whitening is not regular as in that species, and is frequently patchy, russet "islands" being left surrounded by white.

As compared with the Brown Hare, the Irish Hare is smaller and of more graceful build, but the head is relatively longer and broader, the eyes rounder, the ears shorter and the limbs longer.

Though it does not dig burrows of its own, it has been known frequently when coursed to take refuge in a Rabbit-burrow. Though, like the other Hares, solitary, the Irish Hare shows a tendency to gregariousness at times. They have been seen in the North of Ireland moving in droves of two or three hundred, like Deer.

It has several litters during the year, averaging three leverets a litter. They seldom remain long together, either moving apart of their own accord or being separated by the old doe. They are able to run when only an hour or two old.

HOOFED ANIMALS: RED DEER, FALLOW DEER, AND ROE DEER

*Red Deer* (_Cervus elaphus_, Linn.).

The largest and noblest surviving member of the ancient British fauna, the Red Deer to-day has a very limited range--the mountain glens of Scotland and Westmorland, in the north, and the wide Devon and Somerset moors and the New Forest in Hampshire. Even in the New Forest, where only a few score remain, it is extinct officially, for an Act of Parliament passed in the year 1851 decreed the extermination of the Deer, the reason being that they destroyed a vast quantity of what was then become of far greater national value than venison--the growing timber--and demoralised the inhabitants by creating a race of deer-stealers.

A full-grown Stag, as the male Red Deer is called, stands about four feet in height at the shoulders; the Hind, or female, somewhat less. The summer coat is reddish-brown, sometimes golden-red, which changes to a brownish-grey in winter by the new growth of grey hairs. On the under parts the colour is white, and a patch of white around the short tail furnishes a "recognition mark," common to most of the Deer family, which serves to guide the herd when they are in flight before an enemy. A hind bears her first calf when she is about three years old.

All the species of Deer belong to what naturalists know as the even-toed ungulates (animals with divided hoofs). As distinguished from the Horse, for example, which walks on a single hoof in the middle line of the foot, the Deer are supported on two smaller symmetrical hoofs and the axis of the foot passes between them. If you come across the footprints of the Red Deer--"slot" the hunter calls them--in soft ground you will find that fact well-marked. Let me say parenthetically that when observing wild animals, footprints or "spoor" should be eagerly watched for. In the deeper slot of the Deer there may also be slight impressions of two other toes, one on each side behind and above the hoofs.

If you should come across a no longer needed skull of the Deer, take the opportunity for examining its dental arrangements. You are, of course, more likely to meet with it in a museum than in your rambles. You will find the teeth and their disposition do not differ materially from what are found in the jaws of the ox and the sheep; for like those the Deer is a ruminant, living on vegetable food and having a four-chambered stomach. There are no teeth in the forepart of the upper jaw, the three premolars and three molars of each side being placed well back in the cheek. On each side of the lower jaw we find right in front three incisors or cutting teeth, which bite against hardened gum in the upper jaw. The Stag alone has a single canine tooth a little behind these, but the Hind is denied this possession. Three premolars and three molars correspond with, and bite against, those of the upper jaw. Dental formula: _i 0/3, c 0/1, p 3/3, m 3/3 = 32_.

The food of the Deer is herbage and the young shoots of trees and shrubs. It is this fact that led to their nominal extermination in the New Forest and other places. By nature they are woodland animals--although their greater prevalence to-day in the Highlands might give us a different impression--and in the winter especially do great damage to the plantations of young trees. Agricultural lands in their vicinity also suffer greatly, a whole field of turnips being ruined in a night by a visit from a herd of Deer. They also destroy wheat, potatoes, and cabbages; and in the woods consume many toadstools, acorns, and chestnuts.

In spring and summer whilst his horns are growing the Stag lives apart from his kind, but in the early autumn when these are well-developed and hard, we may in suitable localities hear his "belling" call to the Hinds, or in defiance to some rival.

"The wild buck bells from ferny brake,"

as Sir Walter Scott puts it. There is a good deal of furious fighting when two jealous Stags of similar age and strength meet in the vicinity of the hinds. He is then in the prime of condition, his neck and shoulders clad in a thick mantle of long brown hair, and his head adorned with the noble pair of antlers that reveals his age. Those that decorated and armed him last autumn and winter were shed bodily about March, and a new growth started soon after from the burred frontal knobs that were left. It is important to notice the difference between these solid though temporary growths and the mere shells that permanently decorate the heads of oxen, sheep, and goats. In the Deer they are what biologists term secondary sexual characters; they are possessed by the males only, and cast in their entirety at the end of each breeding season with its frequent contests between the Stags. The history of these antlers is strangely like that of a tall perennial herb whose stems and branches die down to the rootstock each winter--that is, after the plant's breeding season--and start into more vigorous growth each spring. The "rootstock" of the Stag's horns makes its appearance at an early age, and its annual growth is more numerously branched each succeeding year. The growth of the Stag's horns is said to keep pace with the growth of the bracken among which he rests.

When the male Deer-calf is a few months old he becomes distinct from the female by the appearance of two knobs ("bossets") on the front of the head; he is then a _knobber_. Next year these become longer and pointed ("dags") and he becomes known as a _brocket_. The third year a branch appears forward--the brow antler--and he becomes a _spayad_. The fourth year a second forward antler--the bez tine or bay--is produced at about a third from the summit of the now long horn; and he is known as a _staggard_. The tray (_très_) or royal antler appears near the summit in the fifth year, and this entitles the young Deer to the title of _Stag_: he has come of age. From the sixth year, when the crown of antlers begins to form at the summit by the production of tines in several directions at the same height, he becomes a _Hart_ or _Stag of Ten_; and in former days he could advance beyond that dignity by escaping with his life after being hunted by the King, thereby earning the rank of a _Stag Royal_. If he lives long enough he may wear a pair of antlers each having as many as forty-eight points. He is considered, by the way, to live for forty years.

The antler has a core of solid bone covered by a continuation of the soft skin of the head, which bears a close pile of short hair and is known as the velvet. When the core has attained to its proper solidity and hardness, the growth of the rough burr at its base, pressing on the blood vessels and stopping their further supply to the velvet above, causes the death of the latter; and the Deer by rubbing the new structure against tree trunks and branches, tears off the velvet in strips, and is then able to do battle with his peers. The ensuing period of sexual unrest having been passed through safely, the whole structure down to the burrs is parted with, and a finer set of antlers begun. The whole process of antler growth occupies about ten weeks, and during this period the Stag is always in poor condition, and seeks solitude. What becomes of the dropped antlers is somewhat of a mystery, as few of them are found, and these usually odd ones.

If one were seeking to judge the habits of the Red Deer from a finely stuffed specimen in, say, the Natural History Museum, standing erect with fully developed antlers, one would feel justified in saying, as many have said--"This is a creature of the open mountain-side and the moorland, where there are no trees whose branches could entangle these branching horns. No adornment could be better fitted for keeping the noble beast out of the woods." Yet the Deer can actually run through dense woods with ease, and we know from its habitats in other countries where it is still plentiful, that it is a true woodland animal. The explanation is evident if, during a Stag hunt, we see the hunted seek refuge in a wood. The Stag throws his head back so that his antlers lie along each side and protect his body from many a bruise that might otherwise be inflicted by the branches as he rushes through the undergrowth. The antlers may be used with deadly effect in self-defence, and many a hound is killed by a Stag at bay. Their function appears to be mainly protective against carnivorous beasts; they are seldom if ever effective against those of their own kind.

The mating of the Red Deer, as we have indicated, takes place in the autumn; and in the spring the Hinds separate, each retiring to a lonely spot among the bracken where her single calf (rarely two) is born about the end of May. The little deer is already covered with fur, and its back and sides are dappled with white after the manner of the Fallow Deer, though unlike the livery of that species the spotting of the Red Deer is not retained beyond calfhood. The calf is born with some intelligence also. Mr. St. John tells how, one day in the Highlands, he "was watching a Red Deer hind with my glass, whose proceedings I did not understand, till I saw that she was licking a new-born calf. I walked up to the place, and as soon as the old deer saw me she gave her young one a slight tap with her hoof. The little creature immediately laid itself down; and when I came up I found it lying with its head flat on the ground, its ears closely laid back, and with all the attempts at concealment that one sees in animals which have passed an apprenticeship to danger of some years, whereas it had evidently not known the world for more than an hour, being unable to run or escape. I lifted up the little creature, being half inclined to carry it home in order to rear it. The mother stood at the distance of two hundred yards, stamping with her foot, exactly as a sheep would have done in a similar situation. I, however, remembering the distance I had to carry it, and fearing that it might get hurt on the way, laid it down again, and went on my way, to the great delight of its mother, who almost immediately trotted up, and examined her progeny all over, appearing, like most other wild animals, to be confident that her young and helpless offspring would be a safeguard to herself against the attacks of her otherwise worst enemy."

It is in the localities described by the author just quoted that we have still the best chance of studying the Red Deer under natural conditions, though there have naturally been some changes since his classic "Wild Sports of the Highlands" was first published in 1845. But the southerner, as we have hinted, has still a prospect of meeting with the noble beast on Exmoor and in Hampshire, to say nothing of the tamer herds in parks. To get a good view of these, they should be approached with a pretence of unconcern: they can often be well observed from a road at a few yards' distance without arousing their suspicions, whereas a few steps towards them on the greensward will cause them to bolt.

Respecting the large numbers of Deer that formerly existed in the south, there is an illuminating reminiscence mentioned by Gilbert White. He says that an old keeper assured him on information from his father, head-keeper of Wolmer Forest, "that Queen Anne, as she was journeying on the Portsmouth road, did not think the forest of Wolmer beneath her royal regard. For she came out of the great road at Lippock, which is just by, and, reposing herself on a bank smoothed for that purpose, lying about half a mile to the east of Wolmer Pond and still called Queen's Bank, saw with great complacency and satisfaction the whole herd of Red Deer brought by the keepers along the vale before her, consisting then of about five hundred head. A sight this worthy the attention of the greatest sovereign!" Even more striking is the confession of a notorious deer-stealer in the New Forest, who assured the Rev. William Gilpin, author of "Forest Scenery," that in five years he had killed on an average "not fewer than a hundred bucks a year."

It should be stated that the British examples of the Red Deer are considered to constitute a geographical race known as _scoticus_. The European range of the species extends from the Mediterranean to central Sweden and central Norway.

*Fallow Deer* (_Cervus dama_, Linn.).

The Fallow Deer is recognisable at a glance as distinct from the Red Deer by the entirely different character of the antlers. Those of the Fallow Deer are flattened and expanded in all the branches of the upper part, though the main stem or "beam" is rounded as in the Red Deer. With the exception of the equivalents of the brow antler and the bez tine the antler forms a broad curved plate whose margins run out in a number of flat points. It is known as a palmate antler, comparable to the palm of the hand with its finger prolongations. These horns are shed annually, like those of the Red Deer, but slightly later. There are no canine teeth in either sex.

The Fallow Deer is smaller than the Red Deer, the Buck standing only a little more than three feet at the shoulders, and the Hind somewhat less. It differs in colour, too, from the Red Deer, being a paler red or reddish-yellow above spotted with white, and yellowish-white on the under parts. The tail is longer than that of the Red Deer, and is kept in constant motion from side to side. The vertical white stripe on either side of the rump shows up strongly when the animal is in retreat. In winter the fur darkens; and some of the tame herds in parks show this dark coloration at all seasons. This has been explained by the statement that they are descended from a darker, hardier race introduced from Norway by James I.; but Harting says this variety was in Windsor Park as far back as the year 1465. It is this dark form that is met with in Epping Forest. It may also be seen in Richmond Park, where, however, the lighter form is in the majority.

In this connection it should be mentioned that it is believed the Fallow Deer was introduced to Britain by the Romans, though fossil remains found here show that it was a true native originally. One is inclined to be somewhat suspicious of these introductions attributed to the Romans. It is quite possible that in their desire to enjoy all their continental luxuries they may have brought with them much that was indigenous to the soil. It is possible, too, that they were more proficient as conquerors than as observers of Nature. Cæsar, for example, has left it on record that, when he hewed his way through the dense forests between the south coast and London, there were no beech trees growing, whereas every botanist who has devoted attention to the origin and distribution of our flora is convinced that the invasion of southern England by the beechwoods of the Continent took place ages before great Cæsar was born, and before the separating English Channel was more than a river valley. Men who could overlook so majestic and plentiful a tree as the beech on our chalklands, were capable of not seeing the shy Fallow Deer, which has a wonderful power of vanishing silently among the bracken. However, modern authorities are of opinion that the Fallow Deer is native only in the Mediterranean region of Europe and Asia Minor; elsewhere it has been introduced by man.

In addition to the marked difference in the form of the horns in these two species of Deer, there is also a distinction in the development of these ornaments. During its first year the Fallow fawn gives no sign of such a growth, but in its second it produces a pair of short unbranched prongs, which gives the fawn its name of _pricket_. The next year there is a great advance, for each simple prong is succeeded by a horn that bears two forward tines, and the extremity of the beam is slightly expanded and flattened, and its margin indented. In the fourth year the form is similar but more developed, the flat portion of the beam being much larger and its outer margin more regularly toothed or snagged. The fifth year shows further advance along the same lines, and the animal becomes known as a _buck of the first head_. In later years the additions are merely an increase in the number of spillers or snags to the flattened beam.

During the breeding season and throughout the winter Fallow Deer may be encountered in mixed herds of both sexes; at other times in parties of Bucks _or_ Does. Like the Red Deer it is a great enemy to the forester, and in winter time is not content with browsing on the young shoots of the trees, but utterly kills many by destroying their bark. They also eat acorns, chestnuts and horse-chestnuts. By reason of their feeding more in the lowland woods, where the diet is more liberal, the venison of the Fallow Deer is considered more tender and of finer flavour.