no THE RED DEER OE EXMOOR. 



put into the mouth of Lord Talbot (i Henry VI., 

 Act IV., sc. 2, 48), when he says : 



If we be English deer, be then in blood ; 

 Not rascal-like to fall down with a pinch, 

 But rather, moody-mad and desperate stags, 

 Turn on the bloody hounds with heads of steel 

 And make the cowards stand aloof at bay : 

 Sell every man his life as dear as mine, 

 And they shall find dear deer of us, my friends. 



The ancient authorities are almost silent about 

 hind-hunting, although the hind is expressly men- 

 tioned as a " beast of venerie." 



There is also probablyanother reason for the neglect 

 of hind-hunting ; she is, at least till well on in the 

 spring, a much more difficult beast to kill than a 

 stag, especially to a pack of hounds deficient in 

 pace ; the gregarious instinct is much more strongly 

 developed than in a stag, and makes her much more 

 eager to join the herd. When several hinds have 

 been on foot for some little time, and all are equally 

 wet and dirty, the impossibility of picking out the 

 hunted deer is likely to insure her escape. Moreover, 

 at the time when these old treatises were written, 

 the venison was still of leading importance in the 

 minds of all, and a hind carrying little or no fat is 

 very poor eating, 



Gaston de Foix's commentary on some hounds 

 which he commended throws some light on this : 

 " Other manner of running hounds there be which hunt 

 a good deal more slowly and heavily, but as they begin 

 so they hold on all day. These hounds force not so 



