38 THE RED DEER OF EXMOOR. 



The head now hangs in the hall at St. Andries 

 with many other fine trophies. 



A stag with a curious malformed head was killed 

 on October 24th, 1903, which might have been just 

 accounted to have seven on top on each side. He 

 was described in the Field as follows : "He had an 

 extraordinary head, with a big, heavy beam, and 

 brow, bay, tray, all well-developed sharp points. 

 On the top of each antler was a flat palmated 

 formation about the size of a man's hand, with seven 

 distinct points set round the edge. The points were 

 distinct but were very small. They would just 

 answ^er the test of hanging your hunting-crop on 

 them." This stag suddenly appeared from no one 

 knows where about a fortnisfht before he was killed. 

 He had been moved on bv tufters. Afterwards he 

 had been seen almost daily in and around Hawk- 

 ridge, and when killed was found to have a broken 

 leg. 



Curiously enough none of the stalkers in the 

 district had ever seen the big stag Lord Burton 

 killed, and he only came across it by accident in the 

 middle of a stalk, and killed it with a long snap shot. 

 Where old deer hide themselves has always been a 

 problem, but how deer with such noticeable heads 

 could escape observation from trained eyes for so 

 many years is perfectly inexplicable. 



The spread of Exmoor heads is generally less than 

 that of Scottish deer, but the head killed by Mr. 

 Sanders in 1896, measuring '^^\ inches from outside 



