THE ANTLERS OF THE RED-DEER 231 



peaty soil below, is all torn up. If you were within 

 sight when the heather and turf -tearing was done, 

 this is what you would see : on the grazing -ground 

 there is a stag jealously herding the company of 

 hinds he has been able to gather for himself. 

 On the eminence is another stag trying the effect 

 of terrifying tactics on the more successful rival 

 below. He lifts up his head and roars. He swings 

 his head about and tears up the turf with his 

 horns. There is a prodigious show of power, 

 and generally a suggestion that he has more than 

 half a mind to go down and tear the other fellow 

 into shreds. Some of the hinds are manifestly 

 impressed, and show a disposition to move away 

 and join the prepossessing young buck on the 

 ridge. But the old stag rounds them up with many 

 a disciplinary shove, and that is generally all he 

 does. Generally, too, menacing is all that the buck 

 on the ridge does. He is in hope that the stag 

 below will take fright and run away. This is a per- 

 formance that usually takes place after the more 

 real fights which, at an earlier stage, have deter- 

 mined the question of which stags are to possess 

 a harem of hinds. When the harem has actually 

 been formed a wise stag pays little attention to 

 challenges. He knows precisely what their value 

 is, and possibly he knows, too, what will happen 

 if a multiplex husband gets into a scrap. What 

 takes place when an unwise stag leaves his herd 

 to beat off an encroaching rival has often been 

 witnessed. A third stag promptly appears upon 

 the scene, and attempts, sometimes successfully, 

 to carry a cluster of the ladies away. 



