34 RED DEER. 



sants ; the hen, or heath-poult, is in general 

 terms brown, but it is a brown with buff 

 under, crossed in squares, or checks, a 

 pattern very difficult to imitate. 



Next I came to a coombe head in which 

 ran a streamlet, and at its sides were some 

 small larches in their first green, pleasant to 

 see among the dry dark heather. At this clear 

 spring the deer often drink, and the cover — 

 it is hardly a cover, for there are only a few 

 trees — is a favourite spot with them to pass 

 the day. There was no stag here in harbour 

 at present, still I stayed awhile by the splash- 

 ing rivulet of water under the green larches 

 between the rocky sides of the coombe. 

 Out in the expanse of heather the open 

 distances were oppressive; here in the hollow, 

 with green to enclose the eye-glance, the 

 solitude was a delight. The deer had been 

 here quite recently, for there was fresh slot, 

 or foot-marks, both of stags and hinds, on a 

 sandy path they used. All the coombes, the 

 top or beginning of which I had passed, 



