96 RED DEER. 



points dwindle to three, and then to two, 

 so as to look like those of a young stag. 



There is no more beautiful creature than 

 a stag in his pride of antler, his coat of 

 ruddy gold, his grace of form and motion. 

 He seems the natural owner of the ferny 

 coombes, the oak woods, the broad slopes of 

 heather. They belong to him, and he steps 

 upon the sward in lordly mastership. The 

 land is his, and the hills, the sweet streams, 

 and rocky glens. He is infinitely more 

 natural than the cattle and sheep that have 

 strayed into his domains. For some inex- 

 plicable reason, although they too are in 

 reality natural, when he is present they look 

 as if they had been put there and were kept 

 there by artificial means. They do not, as 

 painters say, shade in with the colours and 

 shape of the landscape. He is as natural 

 as an oak, or a fern, or a rock itself. He is 

 earth-born autochthon and holds posses- 



