MAMMALS UNGULATA 27. Red Deer. Cervus elaphus, Linn. Although neither this nor the following species occurs in a wild state in Hertfordshire at the present day, a paper on the mammals of the county is hardly complete without some mention of them. In the Trans. Watford Nat. Hist. Soc. for 1878, p. 32, there is mention made of the discovery, in the peat in Pans- hanger Park, of a fine pair of antlers and fifteen vertebrae which were referred to this species. The antlers were in a fine state of preservation and measured 3 feet in length, 21 inches in spread, and 7 inches in cir- cumference just above the place where they joined the skull. Whether these remains belonged to the indigenous red deer of Hert- fordshire or to the former enclosed animals is uncertain, but I should rather think to the former category. There is however the possibility of their belonging to enclosed animals as formerly there were deer in this park, although I believe there are none there at the present day. In the Transactions of the Herts Nat. Hist. Soc. for 1883, p. 97, Mr. Harting supplies a very interesting paper on Hertfordshire deer parks, from which it would appear that at that time this species was only kept in one park in the county, viz. Ashridge Park, the seat of Earl Brownlow. There are still red deer there, some of which occasion- ally bear fine heads. During the present year I saw a stag there with a fine head of nine- teen points. I believe that at the present time there are from 100 to 150 red deer there. 28. Fallow Deer. Cervus dama, Linn. Though now only to be found in parks in this county, no doubt the fallow deer, which still exists in a practically wild state in Epping Forest in the adjoining county of Essex, was also found wild here. Those days however have unfortunately long since passed away. 221
