OF THE STAG'S HEAD. 29 



In 1905 stags were very forward, and on the open- 

 ing day a heavy stag came out of covert with a 

 strip of velvet torn off almost the entire length of 

 one antler, leaving the white bone showing plainly, 

 a thing which could not have happened unless the 

 velvet was beginning to dry up. The stag broke not 

 more than 200 yards from where he had been 

 couched, and though possible, it is extremely 

 improbable that he did the injury in that short 

 distance. 



During the time the antler is forming, the stags 

 are a prey to flies ; they dare not lie in the cool 

 coppices, because every twig would lacerate the 

 velvet, causing apparently intense pain. High open 

 wood is little better, and for the most part they lie 

 still and suffer in the glare of the sun on the open 

 heather, with a dense cloud of fiies hovering over 

 them and crowding on the velvet till it looks black. 

 A careful stalk and a good glass will show the 

 animal, which a few weeks ago was a lordly stag, 

 and in a few weeks more will be so again, a truly 

 deplorable object with twitching head, and con- 

 stantly moving ears, being literally eaten up by the 

 flies. 



'Antler seems the most nearly correct term one 

 can use when one does not speak of the " head," 

 though in the Boke of St. Albans the term is con- 

 fined to the brow antler, the lowest of the three 

 " rights." 



" Thou shall call the head of a hart auntelere. 



