TI1E ELK, OR WATITL " 271 



often gives his life to the stronger for his presumption in 

 rival gallantry. The hinds bring forth their young in May 

 or June, but their families are confined to one at a time, 

 twins being unknown. The calf, which is spotted like the 

 fawn of a deer, is a beautiful creature, and so active that 

 it is able to run about with its dam in the course of a few 

 days after its birth. The mother is very much attached to 

 it, and fights bravely in its defence, if necessary, with head 

 and feet ; but the best protectors are the males. 



The latter wander away from the herd during the spring 

 and early summer, and secrete themselves in the thickest 

 underbrush while they are growing their antlers; and their 

 presence is then readily detected by the shaking of the un- 

 dergrowth, against which they are almost constantly rub- 

 bing their irritated frontal appendages. They may bo 

 easily approached from the leeward during that time, as 

 the swaying of the shrubbery produces noise enough to 

 drown the hunter's footsteps, and the animals are lost to 

 everything but the alleviation of their irritation. Many 

 skin -hunters — that is, those who hunt them for the hide 

 alone — kill numbers of them while engaged in the "shak- 

 ing," as hunters call it, and leave the meat to rot on the 

 ground, or to furnish food to carnivorous birds and quad- 

 rupeds. 



The production of the horns makes a heavy drain on the 

 strength of the stag, and the result is that he is thinner and 

 weaker in July than the hind, which has been nursing her 

 young one for perhaps two months. By the latter end of 

 August he is in splendid condition, however ; and his mag- 

 nificent antlers being then full grown, he roams through 

 the forest and over the plain in all his majesty, ever ready, 

 like the knight of old, to woo the gentle sex or to measure 

 his strength against every rival for the love of the deer- 

 ladies. How proudly he struts ! how defiantly he stares 

 at all foes except man ! and how grandly he shows his 

 strength and speed as he takes his long and measured 

 paces over hill and dale, and through the light coppice or 

 dense forest! During the running season ho seems ready 



