314
THE ESSEX NATURALIST
farmers that they were destroyed. There was also a small herd
near Takeley which was believed to have been descended from a
single hind lost by hounds during a chase. Laver recorded 120 in
Easton Park, 10 in Hatfield Forest, which was then a private
estate, 40 in Thorndon Park and 70 in Weald Park, where some
remained until the park was disbanded in 1945. It is not known
whether they escaped or were shot.
No herds of red deer were found during the survey but indivi-
duals kept turning up and it is not clear from where they came.
At the present time there are only two parks in Essex containing
red deer: they are Bedfords Park, near Havering and St. Osyth
Park, near Clacton.
ROE DEER (Capreolus capreolus)
Laver reported that in 1884 roe deer were reintroduced to
Epping Forest from Dorset and in 1897 there were about 20. It
would appear that they died out during the 1920s, the last one
reputedly being seen in 1926. In 1892 two were reported to be in
Weald Park but it is not known how long they or their descendants
remained. There was none there in 1945.
No roe deer were recorded in Essex during the survey.
JAPANESE SIKA DEER (Cervus nippon)
Weald Park contained nine sika deer according to Laver and
it is known that there were some there in 1945. It is presumed
that they were soon captured or killed after the park was dis-
banded, as none was reported in later years. No records of these
deer occurring in the county were obtained during the survey.
FALLOW DEER (Dama dama)
Fallow deer were the predominate deer in Essex in Laver's
time and the same situation certainly exists today. Laver stated
that Epping Forest was the only place where fallow lived in the
wild. This is extremely unlikely owing to the number of parks in
the county containing fallow deer, from which escapes doubtless
occurred from time to time.
There were ten parks with fallow deer in 1898 of which Easton
Park had the highest number with 450. Only one of those parks,
Quendon, is still in existence today as a deer park, but St. Osyth
Park, which was started in 1960 with red deer only, now has a
herd of fallow.
The official Epping Forest deer counts give an indication of
the fluctuations in the numbers of fallow deer: 1898—178, 1902—
272, 1907—102, 1912—239, 1920—85, 1940—134, 1948—182 and
1963—70. The number of deer in the forest at this time is prob-
ably considerably less than that recorded in 1963, many having
moved onto the surrounding estates.