66 RED DEER. 



A good pair will fetch 5/. ; as much 

 as 10/. has been given for a pair with 

 a remarkable number of points. These 

 prices alone show that it is not so easy to 

 find a pair of dropped antlers as might be 

 imagined. A gamekeeper, in one wood, 

 one season found eiirht horns running, all 

 single, that is, belonging to one side of the 

 head only. Many of the horns sold are 

 really odd antlers, and were dropped by dif- 

 ferent stags ; these are fitted together, and 

 generally to a hind's head. The stag's head 

 is the property of the Master of the Stag- 

 hounds, and it is taken possession of for 

 him when a stag is killed, consequently few 

 genuine heads of the red stag come into the 

 market. 



To all but a ' forester good,' a hind's 

 head looks as natural as a stag's when 

 fitted with horns, and fastened to the wall. 

 A single horn will bring a sovereign, and it 

 is by collecting these single horns that most 

 of the pairs are formed, excluding of course 



