EVEN-TOED UNCxULATES (aRTIODACTYLa) 215 



maximum development from seven to eleven years 

 old and then deteriorate. They are usually shot at 

 the age of six or seven years, and the wild ones when 

 from seven to eleven years old. 



The English wild stags shed their horns in April, 

 and the new ones are fully developed in October. 

 Scotch wild stags are a month later, according to 

 Mr. Millais, and park stags a month earlier, but 

 much depends on the weather and the season. Shed 

 antlers are rarely met with in parks, and it has been 

 ascertained, without doubt, that the deer eat them, in 

 spite of the fact that they have no upper incisor 

 teeth, wherewith to gnaw such a hard, bony substance. 



In September the mountains re-echo with the 

 bello wings of the stags in search of the hinds, for 

 the breeding season has commenced, and it is then 

 that the rival " monarchs of the glen ^' meet in the 

 deadly conflict with which, Landseer has made us all 

 familiar. The young are born in May or June, one, 

 rarely two, at a birth, and they are very prettily 

 spotted. 



It is impossible to give a better impression of the 

 red deer than that which has been so ably expressed 

 by Mr. Millais \^ 



" Beyond question the red stag is the finest wild 

 animal that our islands contain. With his delicate 

 nostrils accepting the breeze and his head thrown 

 well back he looks the embodiment of all that is 

 noble and free. Away up in his home among the 

 clouds there is something majestic in his bearing. 

 He is just the right thing in the right place. We 



* hoc. cit., vol. iii, p. 116. 



