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." [Illustration: _Pl. 78._ _I 128._ *Fallow Deer Buck.* Cervus dama.] [Illustration: _Pl. 79._ *Alpine Hare.* Lepus timidus.] [Illustration: _Pl. 80._ *Red Deer Hind.* Female Deer have no indication of antlers.] [Illustration: _Pl. 81._ _K 129._ *Roe Buck.* Capreolus capraea.] 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.