Recreations in natural history; or, popular sketches of British quadrupeds: describing their nature, habits, and dispositions, and interspersed with original anecdotes / Embellished with numerous engravings and wood cuts, from portraits of living animals, painted by the first masters.

Date:
1815
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Recreations in natural history; or, popular sketches of British quadrupeds: describing their nature, habits, and dispositions, and interspersed with original anecdotes / Embellished with numerous engravings and wood cuts, from portraits of living animals, painted by the first masters. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    hinds were also carried oflf, the linest chases were exhibited. I saw myself (continues Mr. White) one of the yeomen prickers single out a stag from the herd, and must confess that it was the most curious feat of activity I ever beheld. The exertions made by the horse and deer much exceeded all my expectations, though the former greatly excelled the latter in speed. When the de» voted deer was separated from his companions, they gave him, by their watches, lau\ as they called it, for twenty minutes; when, sounding their horns, the stop-dogs were permitted to pursue, and a most gallant scene ensued. Deer frequently make incursions into corn-fields, in order to devour the tender slioots on their first appearance above ground. The farmer burns fires all night to deter them; and commonly smears his ropes with tar, which he sets up as fences; throwing fetid substances in his nightly fires to disseminate the odours in the smoke. The stag might be easily trained, like the rein-deer of Lapland, to draw a carriage, if we had not animals more proper for the pur- ’ pose. The late Earl of Orford possessed two deer, which, by do¬ mestication, became manageable, were bitted, and drew a light curricle with great gentleness and expedition. In France, and in Germany also, according to the accounts of some naturalists, deer have submitted to be harnessed; in the latter country, six of these animals have been quite tractable to the bit and whip, THE FALLOW DEER. No country produces fallow deer in quantities equal to Eng¬ land ; and in every other country they are in a state of nature,