i 5 8 RED DEER. 



thin. The hinds prefer the older stags, and 

 when two are fighting they will sometimes 

 approach and butt the one they dislike 

 behind, and the one they butt is generally 

 beaten. It is said that stags rarely fight 

 twice. The conqueror is master of the 

 wood, and is accompanied by five or six 

 hinds. The stags in a cover soon know 

 their master, and yield ; the fighting is when 

 a strange stag arrives from a distant wood, 

 perhaps having come ten miles. There is 

 then a battle between the intruder and the 

 master of the copse. 



At this time a stag's neck becomes much 

 thicker, and is said to be very tough. Some 

 say that when a stag has won a battle if a 

 man chance to be present he will run at him, 

 but the huntsman is of opinion that a stag 

 never attacks a man, not even at rutting time. 

 Men are sometimes hurt in approaching a 

 stag at bay, but he thinks that a stag would 

 never of his own volition attack anyone. 

 The huntsman has had twenty-seven years' 



