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. [Illustration: _Pl. 76._ _I 124._ *Red Deer Stag.* Cervus elaphus.] [Illustration: _Pl. 77._ _I 125._ *Young of Brown Hare.* Left in "form" whilst mother feeds.]