EVEN-T0P;D UNGUIiATES (a ktiudactyla) 217 



teetli. ^J'o those familiar with a deer park, the 

 bellowing of the stags in autumn and the deep bark 

 of the hinds are well-known sounds. 



It is said that a slightly wounded stag travels up 

 wind and up hill, and then lies down looking back. A 

 badly wounded stag travels down wind and down hill. 



They will jump to a height of 7 feet, and leap 

 across a space of 20 feet. The distance between the 

 two stones said to have been placed at '^ Hart^s 

 Leap " on the borders of Ettrick by a Scottish king 

 is 28 feet. 



Mr. Millais says that in the woods of Somerset 

 and Devon it is a well-known fact that the cunning- 

 old stags make '*^ fags " of the younger ones about 

 three or four years old. If the herd is disturbed 

 the fag is thrust forward, and the old stag will 

 occupy his couch. But the same author adds : 



"If you go into a park or forest for a year and 

 study the deer, you will see them do things that are 

 well known to naturalists for 364 days, and on the 

 365tli day you will see something quite unusual and 

 perhaps unrecorded, but that depends on your 

 powders of observation.'^ 



The same may be said with legard to the observa- 

 tion of any living thing, whether animal or plant, 

 although so much depends upon the observer. We 

 all remember the little girl who, when told to watch 

 and record the habits of her cat, said that it never 

 had any habits when she was looking at it. 



It is as impossible to tame a stag as it is to tame 

 alien. At two years old he becomes dangerous, 

 perhaps even more dangerous than a lion. 



