204 NATURAL HISTORY. 



CHAP. IX. 



OP CERTAIN INTERMEDIATE ANIMALS BETWEEN WILD 



AND DOMESTIC. THE STAG, OR RED DEER OF 



THE FALLOW-DEER, THE ROEBUCK, &C. 



THE STAG. 



JL HE Stag is one of those mild, innocent animals, 

 which seem as if they were created solely to adorn and 

 animate the solitude of the forests, and to occupy, re- 

 mote from man, the peaceful retreats of Nature. His 

 light and elegant form ; his flexible, yet nervous limb ; 

 his head rather adorned, then armed, with a living sub- 

 stance, which, like the branch of a tree, is every year 

 renewed ; his grandeur, his swiftness, his strength, 



