DCHP-1 Online

red deer Hist.

• 1 †  See whitetail deer; also, the skin of this animal.

  See also: whitetail(ed) deer   

  • 1584  (1877)  There is greate store of stagges, redd dere, fallowe dere, beares, and other suche like sorts of beasts. . . .
  • 1749  There are now no Deer-Skins now imported, except a few Moose, Elk, and Red Deer dreess'd.
  • 1898  In the short season of fifteen days, from the first to the fifteenth of November, it is wonderful how many red deer are killed in Ontario.
  • 1916  But the red man no longer set up his tepee in these secluded groves; the wapiti and red deer had fled to the north never to return. . . .

• 2 n. the North American elk or stag, Cervus canadensis.

  See also: wapiti  

  • c1665  (1885)  They weare waited on by a sort of yong men, bringing down dishes of meate of Oriniacke, of Castors, and of red deer mingled with some flowers.
  • 1793  (1801)  They are not so large as the elk of the Peace River, but are the real red deer, which I never saw in the north.
  • 1857  (1863)  It was not until we came to the west of San Joseph that we found Red Deer (wapite), and then very scarce.
  • 1952  (1954)  There were also red deer or biche. . . .
  • 1966  Red Deer was named by settlers who mistook the elk for a species of Scottish red deer.