STAG, J 09 



The horns of the rein-deer are very large, but slender, 

 projecting forwards, and palmated towards the top. The 

 height of a full-grown animal of this kind is about four feet 

 and a half; it is very strongly built, has thick hair, and 

 invariably a black space round the eyes. Its pace, which 

 is rather a trot than a bounding motion, it will continue 

 for a long time without apparent fatigue, particularly when 

 yoked to a sledge on the snow. 



A Laplander regards the rein-deer as his principal 

 source of wealth, and some individuals possess a thousand 

 of them in a single herd. The season of parturition is 

 about the middle of May, and the females continue to 

 give milk till about the middle of October. Every morn- 

 ing and evening, during that interval, the herdsmen drive 

 them to the cottages to be milked, and afterwards back 

 to pasture. In winter, however, they are left to shift for 

 themselves ; and chiefly subsist on a species of moss, or 

 lichen, which they instinctively discover and paw out 

 from beneath the snow. 



The rein-deer is of two kinds, the wild and the tame ; the 

 former being stronger and more mischievous than the latter 

 The mixed breed between them is generally preferred. 



THE STAG, OR RED-DEER. 



This species of deer has long upright horns, much 

 branched, and slender, sharp, brow-antlers. The colour is 

 generally of a reddish-brown, with some black about the 

 face, and a black list down the hind part of the neck and 

 between the shoulders. The stag is common to the* 

 northern parts of every quarter of the globe, and is pretty 

 generally diffused over Europe. It is one of those mild, 

 tranquil, and innocent animals, which seem created to 

 adorn and animate the solitude of the forest: and to 

 occupy, remote from the visits of man, the peaceful re- 

 treats of nature. Like the rest of the deer-kind, the stag 

 annually sheds its horns, from which that useful volatile 

 spirit called hartshorn is obtained. The lii-id, or female, 

 goes with young somewhat more than eight months. In 



