ANTLER AND FERN. 77 



usual elsewhere. Brake, however, grows 

 rapidly when it once rises out of the bare 

 ground at the sides of the coombes, or be- 

 tween the oaks of the covers, and soon has 

 knots, or rather branches where, if cut 

 across, the figure of an oak-tree appears. 

 When the heated August atmosphere has 

 begun to tint the fern in southern counties 

 with a faint yellow, stag-hunting commences. 

 The deer are fond of the fern to hide in, 

 and they sometimes take a little of the tips 

 of the fronds. Immense quantities of fern 

 are cut and carried away, both on the moors 

 and the Quantock Hills which are moors 

 too for use as litter. All the deer country 

 is full of ferns on the slopes, in the woods, 

 the hedgerows, the walls, and the sides 

 of old buildings from the tree-like brake 

 down to the little wall-rue, they flourish 

 luxuriantly. The hinds seek the cover of 

 the ferns when their calves are born, and 



