Chap. 50.] STAGS. 299 



stances. Theophrastus informs us, that lizards 40 also cast their 

 skins like the serpent, and instantly devour them, thus de- 

 priving us of a powerful remedy for epilepsy ; he says, too, 

 that the bite of the lizard is fatal in Greece, but harmless in 

 Italy. 41 



CHAP. 50. (32.) STAGS. 



Stags, although the most mild of all animals, have still their 

 own feelings of malignancy; 42 when hard pressed by the 

 hounds, of their own accord they fly for refuge to man ; and 

 when the females bring forth, they are less anxious to avoid 

 the paths which bear traces of human footsteps, than solitary 

 spots which offer a retreat to wild beasts. 43 They become 

 pregnant after the rising of the constellation Arcturus; 44 they 

 bring forth after a gestation of eight months, and sometimes 

 produce two young ones. They separate after conception, but 

 the males, upon being thus abandoned, become maddened with 

 the fury of their passion ; they dig up the earth, and their 

 muzzles become quite black, until they have been washed by 

 the rain. 4 * The females, before they bring forth, purge them- 

 selves by means of a certain herb, which is called seselis, by 

 the use of which parturition is rendered more easy. After de- 

 livery, they take a mixture of the two plants called seselis 46 and 

 aros, 47 and then return to the fawn ; they seem desirous, for 



40 The gecko, according to Littre. 



41 This is incorrect ; the bite of this animal, wherever found, is never 

 fatal B. 



42 This refers to what will be found stated in this Chapter, that stags 

 conceal their horns, when they fall off, that they may not he used in medi- 

 cine. B. 



43 This is mentioned by Aristotle, Plutarch, and JElian, but it must be 

 considered as very doubtful. B. 



44 See B. xviii. c. 74. 



45 * It seems that Pliny here attributes the blackening of the mouths of 

 the stags to their turning up the earth with their muzzles ; Aristotle, how- 

 ever, refers it to a constitutional cause, arising from their violent sexual 

 excitement ; Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 29. B. 



46 Or seseli, probably hart-wort. See B. xx. c. 87, and B. xxv. c. 52. 



47 We learn from Hardouin, that there has been much discussion re- 

 specting the plants or other substances which the female is supposed to eat 

 after parturition. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 6, asserts that it eats 

 the chorion, the membrane in which the foetus has been enveloped, and 

 afterwards the herb seselis. To make the account of Pliny agree with 

 that of Aristotle, some of the commentators have even supposed, that 



