114 RED DEER. 



red deer could excite a whole country to 

 such generous enthusiasm. Deer may be 

 said to eat as much as the small Devon 

 cattle which are kept in this part of Somer- 

 set; they feed sometimes with the bullocks 

 that are turned out on the moors. 



They will have the best of everything, and 

 roaming about at night select the meadow 

 with the most succulent grass. They enter 

 orchards, too, in spring for the long grass 

 that grows between the apple-trees. Turnips 

 are a favourite food, and leaving the moors 

 they wander miles down into the cultivated 

 fields to find them. The stag as he walks 

 across the turnip field bites a turnip, draws 

 it from the ground, and throws it over his 

 shoulders, the jerk detaching the fragment 

 he holds between his teeth, and which is 

 the only portion he touches. He takes but 

 one bite at each turnip, casting the re- 

 mainder aside in this way, and his course 



