72 RED DEER. 



that the brow-points are always longer than 

 the bay-points, those next to them. Indian 

 deer have the bay-points longer than the brow 

 — exactly the reverse. A pair of Indian 

 antlers are fixed in the huntsman's porch at 

 Exford, and beside these he has a pair of 

 Exmoor horns, which he succeeded in getting 

 hold of, and which resemble the Indian in 

 this particular. For once the Exmoor horns 

 have the second points longest — the exception 

 demonstrating the rule. 



CD 



As the new horns grow on the siag's 

 head the}' are at first soft and even flexible, 

 and the stag is careful to avoid striking 

 them against anything. They are covered 

 with a skin called the velvet, it is of a 

 brown colour, soft, like plush ; while this 

 bark or skin remains 0:1 the horn the sta^ 

 is said to be in velvet and is not hunted. 

 Towards the end of July, as the horns become 

 hard, the skin is supposed to tickle and irri- 

 tate, and the stag rubs his head against trees 

 to get rid of it. By degrees it peels off, and 



