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 A HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE as 200 have been killed in a day in late years. A pretty incident was seen on these downs a few years ago. A brood of five late leverets was found in a turnip field in September. They were about the size of guinea-pigs. One of the brood repeatedly hopped out of the nest and struck at the stick with which the keeper was putting aside the turnip leaves, at the same time uttering a kind of snuffling sneeze as if to terrify the keeper ! 29. Rabbit. Lepus cuniculus, Linn. The downs are admirably suited to rabbits, but the only regular warren of which the writer knows (one at Lockinge) is only just maintained. Rabbits have greatly decreased since the Ground Game Act, and as farming has pronounced against them their numbers will continue to diminish. Lately His Ma- jesty King Edward VII. has allowed a very large head to be got up in Windsor Great Park, where they lend an ornamental and cheerful appearance to the high ground near the memorial to the Prince Consort. At the beginning of the last century George Elwys of Marcham had a well stocked warren. UNGULATA 30. Red Deer. Cervus elaphus, Linn. There can be no doubt that the red deer in Windsor Great Park are the descendants of those which were imported into Windsor Forest after the destruction of the herds which took place during the Commonwealth period. Besides Windsor Home Park there are others in which deer remain. A small deer paddock made by the late Mr. John Allen of Hendred Downs House (now the property of Lady Wantage) is no longer kept up. But Windsor Great Park, covering 3,000 acres, contains (within a pale of its own) Cranbourne Park, in which is a herd of twenty-five white red deer. In the Great Park itself are at least 100 red deer, the stags being of remarkable size. Neither stags nor hinds are ever killed. In the rutting season, i.e. in September and October, the big stags gather many hinds round them. Continuous watch and ward is kept, the smaller stags being constantly routed. At such times the public are warned that it is dangerous to approach the stags. At Hampstead Marshall Park, the property of the Earl of Craven, on the Kennet a few miles above Newbury, are twenty-five red deer, as well as fallow. Calcot Park, the property of Mr. Henry Barry Blagrave, though only of ninety acres, has the largest herd of red deer in the county, numbering 150. In the Paddock at Ascot, until the Buck- hounds were discontinued, the deer were kept, which provided runs with these hounds. They were often selected from stags removed from Richmond Park, where the largest stags were caught in the ' toils ' or nets in January and taken to Windsor. One of these, a fa- mous stag called ' Moonlight,' returned after being hunted all day, jumped the high fence of the paddock from outside, and so rejoined its companions. 31. Fallow Deer. Cervus dama, Linn. Fallow deer are kept in no less than nine parks in Berkshire. Windsor holds one thousand, Hampstead Marshall 180, and at Englefield Park Mr. James Herbert Benyon, Lord Lieutenant of Berkshire, has a large herd. The park is 450 acres, and 330 fallow deer are kept. At Aldermaston, the property of Mr. Charles Edward Keyser, a part only of the park is devoted to a herd of 70 or 80 fallow deer. Sir Gilbert A. Clayton East, Bart., at Hall Place on the Thames, has a herd of 1 20 fallow deer. Mr. Philip Wroughton at Woolley Park, between Wantage and Newbury, has some 200; at Silwood Mrs. Cordes has 120; Sir William Throckmorton at Buckland main- tains a herd of about 100, and Colonel G. B. Archer-Houblon at Welford, in the Lambourn valley, has 80 of these deer. Formerly herds of deer were maintained at Park Place and at Buscot Park. 32. Roe Deer. Capreolus capreolus, Linn. Bell Capreolus caprea. By a fortunate combination of circum- stances the roebuck, which has been restored to Epping Forest, to Dorsetshire, and parts of Wiltshire and Devon on their Dorset borders, is and has been for some time resident in Berk- shire. These elegant deer were turned out in the Virginia Water woods. There they have more than maintained themselves, and have spread into the wooded estates near Sunningdale, especially into those owned by the Countess Morella. 172