viduals also occur of a very dark or blackish brown, 

 some of a lighter yellowish brown, and some entirely 

 white. The usual number of branches on the horns 

 of a well-grown stag is six or seven, but some have 

 more, and one variety is characterised by the superior 

 amplitude of its horns. In most cases, the males only 

 have horns ; and after their sixth year, when they 

 arrive at maturity, they shed them annually in spring, 

 when they seek the most retired places, and feed only 

 during the night. The annual reproduction of these 

 appendages constitutes, in many points of view, one 

 of the most remarkable phenomena of animal physi- 

 ology. First, it affords a most striking proof of the 

 power of the nutritive senses, and the natural growth 

 which depends on it in warm-blooded animals, since 

 the horn of a stag, which may weigh twenty-five 

 pounds, is completely formed in ten weeks , secondly, 

 it exhibits a singular instance of a limited duration of 

 life in a part of the system, entirely independent of 

 the life of the whole ; and thirdly, it manifests a 

 change of calibre in particular vessels ; for the 

 branches of the external carotids, which supply the 

 horn with nourishmeut, are remarkably dilated 

 during its growth, and recover their former area 

 when that process has ceased ; fourthly, it bespeaks 

 a peculiar sympathy between the growth of the horns 

 and the generative functions ; because castration, or 

 any essential injury of the organs of generation, 

 impedes the increase, alters the form, and interrupts 

 the renewal of the horns. 



There are certain technical names given to the 

 stag, according to his age, which are worthy of being 

 noticed. The young, whether male or female, is 

 styled a calf, and for a few months there is very 

 little distinction between the sexes. At the age of 

 six months, the bassets, or rudimental horns, begin to 

 appear in the male, but they do not advance farther 

 that year than two cylindrical knobs. In the second 

 year they are longer and pointed, in which state they 

 are spikes or dags, and the wearer of them is called a 

 brocket. In the third year the horns put out two or 

 three tynes or branches, and the deer becomes a 

 Kpayad. The crown, or surroyal, appears on' the top 

 of the beam the fourth year, and tnen he is a 

 staggard. The fifth year he becomes a stag, which is 

 the only year that he technically retains the name of 

 a species ; for the sixth year he becomes a hart, and 

 so remains for the rest of his life. In the sixth year 

 he is called a hart of ten, when he is? considered still 

 too young for being legitimate game ; but after his 

 seventh year he is said to be crocked, or palmed, or 

 crowned; after which he is fair game. The number 

 of snags or tynes in the crown of the horn seems to 

 depend a good deal on the richness of the pasture, 

 and on their having proper shelter and food during 

 the winter. In former times, specimens were found, 

 both in England and in other countries, with more 

 than thirty snags on the crown of each horn ; but we 

 believe that half that number is of comparatively rare 

 occurrence. 



The female passes through a succession of stages 

 as well as the male, but they are not so important ; 

 and, besides, regular sportsmen never make game of 

 the females. The female of the first year is a calf, 

 of the second year, a brocket's sister ; and the third, 

 and ever after, a hind. 



Stags do not mew or shed their horns immediately 

 after pairing, though there is reason to believe that 

 the decay of the horn begins at that period. The 



crowned harts are the first to shed theirs, arid always 

 the older the earlier. Something depends upon the 

 season and the pasture, but the average time may be 

 reckoned about the end of February. The harts 

 often shed theirs a month or six weeks later, and the 

 younger ones a month or six weeks later still. The 

 technical word for the horns is attire ; and when 

 these are shed, the animal is said to " lose his attire." 

 In this state he is comparatively defenceless, and 

 retires into the shadiest parts of the cover, or into 

 the most remote or unfrequented parts of the pasture, 

 where there is no cover. He remains there during 

 the summer, and about the month of August the 

 horns are completed ; and he clears them of the skin 

 of velvet with which they were covered, by rubbing 

 them against trees or rocks, or against the ground 

 The hind is in retirement in a different part of the 

 pasture during the same time, where she attends to 

 her calf with truly maternal solicitude, and shows 

 considerable address in drawing off any apparent 

 danger from the place where it is concealed. The 

 young of the former year and the brockets form a 

 third association, but they also retire when they shed 

 their horns. 



In the rutting season the harts fight desperately 

 with each other, but it is only when two of the same 

 age come into contact with each other that this 

 occurs, for the weaker always gives place ; and 

 indeed there seems to be a provision of nature to 

 prevent these rencontres, for the fury of the rutting 

 season comes upon them in the order of seniority, 

 which is also the order of strength. In their battles 

 their horns often get so entangled, that the two are 

 thereby held together till both perish. The great 

 agitation into which they are thrown at this period 

 completely exhausts them, which is not to be won- 

 dered at, when we consider that they abstain almost 

 entirely from food, and run about the pastures 

 " routing" or roaring, as if they were mad. Imme- 

 diately when the stimulus is over, they withdraw in a 

 state of great exhaustion, and remain quiet, eating a 

 great deal, especially acorns, if they can find them ; 

 and this is the reason, probably, why they attain a 

 larger size in oak forests than in forests of pine, or on 

 the open hill ; and it may in part account for their 

 superior size in former times both in Britain and on 

 the continent. In England, those noble animals are, 

 as we have already hinted, comparatively few ; but 

 the case is different in the mountainous parts of 

 Scotland, especially in the central Grampians, be- 

 tween Athol on the south, and Badenoch and 

 Strathspey. There are a few in the south-western 

 Grampians, and also in the mountains northward of 

 Lochness ; but there is nothing which can be con- 

 sidered as a deer-forest in either of those places, or 

 anywhere in Scotland, or, we may add, in Britain, 

 except the forest of Athol, or, more strictly speaking, 

 the forest of Minigag. The eastern part of that 

 forest contains some of the loftiest mountains in 

 Scotland, and it gives rise to various branches of the 

 rivers Dee and Don towards the eastern side, of the 

 Spey towards the north, and of the Tay, more 

 especially the Bruar and the Tilt, towards the 

 south. There are extensive natural forests of pine in 

 the upper glens or valleys of the eastern rivers, but 

 the deer are not quite so abundant there as they are 

 in the south, where the exposure is warmer and the 

 pasture better. Glen Tilt and Glen Bruar, espe- 

 cially the former, are the principal winterings ; but 



