22 THE RED DEER OE EXMOOR. 



his feet." Those who were mounted made a detour 

 over the heather, but the driver of a carriage thought 

 it prudent to wait till the stag moved away. It is 

 most improbable that the stag would have actually 

 attacked if the carriage had been driven straight on 

 at a good pace, but he might have stayed " belling 

 and carrying on " till the last moment, and the 

 horses would' most probably have become quite out 

 of control, and an accident resulted. The driver 

 exercised a very wise discretion. 



The writer once examined a field of potatoes where 

 two stags had been fighting the night before. It was 

 a curious sight. The antlers had been driven in 

 places deep into the ground, in others they had 

 acted like the coulter of a plough, while the marks of 

 knees on the soft ground were very apparent. The 

 devastation wrought both by horns and feet was 

 complete ; a patch of twenty yards each way was 

 dug as thoroughly as ever the farmer could have 

 done it with a bisgay — they do not use a potato- 

 fork in that country — and the hinds had finished the 

 mischief by eating the potatoes afterwards when 

 peace was restored. 



With the exception of a feeble bleat, used only to a 

 very young calf, the hind is mute, and the stag's 

 only sound is the roaring or belling note to which he 

 gives vent in the rutting season to summon his 

 attendant hinds, and to bid defiance to all the world 

 beside. It is a weird sound when heard at night, 

 very startling when heard for the first time, and it 



