THE STAG OR RED DEER 



JM 



and the new horns are completed about the month of August. 

 The rutting season follows in September, when the males become 

 exceedingly fierce, waging desperate contests with each other, and 

 sometimes attacking other animals and men. The hind goes with 

 young eight months and some days. The calf (fawn) is dropped 

 in May or the beginning of June, and remains with the hind all the 

 summer. In winter red deer of all ages and both sexes congregate 

 in herds, from which the older stags and the hinds withdraw as the 

 spring approaches. The stag is very swift, and is an excellent 

 swimmer. Stag-hunting has always been a favourite amusement 

 among the great, and still is practised similarly to fox-hunting, but 

 with tame deer, in a few districts in England, while deer-stalking is a 



FIG. 59. THE RED DEER. 



favourite pastime of the wealthy in the Highlands of Scotland. 

 Formerly the stag was protected by the most stringent forest laws. 

 William the Conqueror is said to have " loved the tall deer as if he 

 had been their father," and to kill a man was a slighter offence than 

 to kill a deer. Red deer only exist wild in Great Britain in the High- 

 lands of Scotland. 



Red deer, astray, cause considerable damage during the night- 

 time to meadows and farm crops, also in orchards when the apples 

 and pears are beginning- to ripen. The hinds eat voraciously of all 

 the fruit within their reach, while the stags stand on their hind 

 legs for the purpose of bringing down the smaller fruit-laden branches. 

 In the forest these animals are also notable for : 



