OF THE STAG'S HEAD. 31 



A male deer under one year old is called a calf 

 and has no antlers, but is none the less easily dis- 

 tinguishable by the shape and pose of the head, 

 which he carries thrown back, as if conscious of 

 what will one day be there. 



As a yearling he carries two small knobs of bone, 

 and is called locally a knobber, or more correctly a 

 brocket. 



As a two-year-old, he bears a short spire or 

 upright, and a short brow antler. He still lives 

 mostly in company with the hinds, and uses the 

 same feeding grounds. 



Beyond this it is hard to judge the age of a deer 

 by the head alone, so much depends on feeding and 

 the nature of the ground where the deer live. 

 Where deer can feed nightly on arable crops, corn 

 in the autumn, turnips in the winter, and particularly 

 where they have access also to oak woods where 

 they can get .plenty of acorns, or where Spanish 

 chestnuts abound, they do not "go back," to use 

 the local term, or lose condition, during the winter, 

 and they undoubtedly develop better, stronger heads. 

 The difference, for example, between the heads of 

 Quantock deer, and those which have wintered on 

 the barren wilds of '' the forest," is most marked. 

 For the same reason no true deduction can be drawn 

 from the heads of park deer, which are fed on hard 

 food during the winter. 



In the Exeter museum is a case showing the 

 successive pairs of antlers of the deer mentioned in 



