280 STAG, 



than of dogs, and is never suspicious, or uses any 

 arts of concealment, but in proportion to the dis- 

 turbances he has received. He eats slow, and has 

 a choice in his aliments ; and after his stomach is 

 full, he lies down and ruminates at leisure. He 

 seems to ruminate with less facility than the ox, 

 and it is only by violent shakes that the stag can 

 make the food rise from his first stomach. This 

 difficulty proceeds from the length and direction of 

 the passage through which the aliment must pass : 

 the neck of the ox is short and strait, but that of 

 the stag is long and arched, and consequently 

 greater efforts are required in rumination. 



" In winter and spring the stag does not drink, 

 the dews and tender herbage being sufficient to 

 extinguish his thirst ; but during the parching 

 heats of summer he frequents the brooks, marshes, 

 and fountains, and in autumn is so over-heated 

 that he searches every where for water to bathe 

 and refresh liis body. He then swims easier than 

 any other time on account of his fatness, and has 

 been observed crossing very large rivers. He 

 leaps still more nimbly than he swims, and when 

 pursued, can readily clear a hedge or pale of six 

 feet high. The food of stags varies according 

 to the season. In autumn they search for the 

 buds of green shrubs, the flowers of broom or 

 heath, the leaves of brambles, &c. During the 

 snows of winter they feed on the bark, moss, cScc. 

 of trees, and in mild weather they bronze in the 

 corn fields. In the beginning of spring they go 

 in quest of the catkins of the trembling poplar, 



