CHAPTER V 



GAME 



THE term game applies to certain wild animals and birds pursued 

 for sport, and the killing or even pursuit of them regulated by the 

 Game Laws. But in a popular sense many wild animals and birds 

 are regarded as game, although not so designated in the Acts, and 

 some, such as the landrail, snipe and woodcock, cannot be legally 

 shot without a game licence. Those of these so-called game that 

 are wholly dependent upon Nature for subsistence have been in- 

 cluded in the preceding pages. Under game, therefore, will be 

 embraced other wild animals and birds not strictly that, although 

 protected by law, mainly for affording sport and also food, etc., 

 to the nation. Thus, in this connexion, reference is made to game 

 reared, fed, and outside, as well as within the respective coverts, 

 feeding on cultivated crops or produce of land which is suitable 

 for afforestation, agricultural, and horticultural cultivation, accord- 

 ing to location, and soil adaptation. 



LARGE GAME 



The STAG or RED DEER (Cervus elaphus), Fig. 59, belongs to the 

 order Ruminantia, or ruminating animals, and is included in the 

 family Cervidae. The adults, male and female, in the summer 

 have the back, flanks and outside of the thighs fulvous brown, 

 with a blackish line running down the spine, marked on each side 

 with a row of pale fulvous spots. In winter, these parts are of a 

 uniform grey-brown, and the head, sides of the neck, and under- 

 parts of the body and legs are also grey-brown ; the buttocks and 

 tail are always pale buff. The young, during the first six months, 

 are brown spotted with white. The male (stag) is distinguished 

 from the female (hind) by the magnificent branching horns, the 

 long bristly hair of the throat, and the canine teeth in the upper 

 jaw. The first year the horns are represented by a knob or protuber- 

 ance ; the second year by pointed spikes ; the third year by two 

 or three tines or antlers, and the horns become more branched 

 every year up to the seventh. After this the horns do not generally 

 increase in the number of branches, but become thicker and stronger. 

 The horns are shed in spring, the old stags first, and the young last, 



