336 MAMMALIA — STAG. 



against the trees, in order to clear them from the scurf with which they 

 are covered. 



The hinds, or females, carry their young eight months, and a few days. 

 They are not all prolific ; and one sort there is in particular, which is 

 always barren. The faAvn retains this appellation no longer than till it is 

 six months old ; then the knobs begin to appear, and it lakes the name of a 

 knobber, which it bears till these knobs are lengthened to so many points. 

 wnence they arc termed prickets, or brockets. It does not quit its mother 

 early, though it grows fast, but follows her all the summer. In winter, the 

 hinds, the knobbers, the prickets, and the young stags resort to the herd, 

 forming troops, which are more numerous in proportion as the season is 

 more severe. In spring, they divide, the hinds retiring to bring forth their 

 young; and at this time there are scarcely any but the prickets and the 

 young stags, which go together. In general, the stags are inclined to 

 remain with each other, and to roam abroad in companies ; it is only from 

 fear or necessity that they are ever found dispersed or separated. 



The growth of the horns appears to depend on the redundancy of the 

 fluid? ; and the beauty of this, as indeed of every part, depends much upon 

 their food. 



The stag passes his whole life in the alternatives of plenitude and want, 

 of corpulence and leanness, of health and sickness, without having his con- 

 stitution much affected by the violence of the change ; nor is the duration 

 of his life inferior to that of other animals which are not subject to such 

 vicissitudes. As he is five or six years in growing, so he generally lives 

 seven times that number of years ; that is, thirty-five or forty years. What 

 nas been reported, therefore, concerning the prodigious longevity of the 

 stag, is without any good foundation, though supported by the story of one 

 which was taken by Charles VI. in the forest of Senlis, with a collar round 

 his neck, whereon was inscribed, " Csesar hoc me donavit ;" and people 

 chose rather to believe that this animal had lived a thousand years, and had 

 received this collar from a Roman emperor, than to conclude that he might 

 come from Germany, where the emperors have always -.turned the title 

 of Coesar. 



The horns of the stag continue to increase in bulk and height, from the 

 second year to the eighth. They remain beautiful, and much the same, 

 during their vigor of life ; but as their body declines with age, so do their 

 horns decline also. 



It is but seldom that the stags of Europe have more than twenty or 

 twenty-two antlers, even when their head is in its most beautiful state ; 

 and, as the size of the stag's head depends on the quantity of his food, so 

 the quality of his horns is found also to depend on the kind of nourishment 

 he receives. It is like the wood of the forest, large, soft, and light, in moist 

 and fertile countries ; and, on the contrary, short, hard, and heavy, in such 

 as are dry and barren. 



