THE CHASE OF THE WILD DEER. 137 



young of the red deer are correctly described as stags, 

 hinds, and calves ; while those of the fallow-deer are 

 known as bucks, does, and fawns respectively. 



Those sportsmen, then, who wish to enjoy the 

 chase of the English wild deer can do so only by 

 resorting to one of the two districts I have referred 

 to. Having spent a season in each district I propose 

 to give a short account of the sport in both. The 

 Devon and Somerset being the better known and 

 more fashionable, I will commence with that pack. 



I. THE DEVON AND SOMERSET STAGHOUNDS. 



These hounds are a pack of great antiquity, but 

 a history of them would be beyond the scope of the 

 present chapter, so I will only refer those interested 

 in the matter to the many books on the subject, such 

 as Collyn's " Chase of the Red Deer," Jefferies' " Red 

 Deer Land," and others. Early in the present reign 

 the head of deer had got very small, but by careful 

 preservation it has now reached such numbers that 

 a hundred head can be killed in a season without 

 permanently affecting the total. The usual number 

 killed is from five-and-twenty to thirty stags between 

 August and October, and twice that number of hinds 

 between November and March. It will thus be seen 

 that the sport is not likely to suffer from want of 

 deer. There is, however, another cause which is 

 likely in time to militate against hunting, and 

 that is, that the deer are gradually migrating away 

 from their original haunts. The ne plus ultra of stag- 

 hunting is a gallop across the moor, and in the old 



