NEW FOREST DEER STALKING. 307 



affairs, the bullet reached them. I saw one of these 

 scenes very well told in the " Gloucester Chronicle," 

 by an eye-witness. The dress of a woman would at 

 other times deceive them, and stalking with a horse 

 would often succeed, and I have killed many a buck 

 from a keeper's cart, the deer taking us for common 

 wayfarers. In approaching deer, if they mistake you 

 for a mere passer-by, the wind does not matter ; they see 

 you are a man, and they expect to scent you : but, in 

 creeping to them unseen, the lightest air must be 

 cared for, for if they wind a man and do not see him 

 they are ever apprehensive that he has a design upon 

 them. ]\Iany a deer have I made sure of, when he 

 was about to gallop or trot by me, by a low short 

 whistle. Not knowing there was a man near him, 

 and hearing a noise, so shortly given that its where- 

 abouts could not be at the instant defined, the deer 

 was sure to stop, to ascertain, by listening for the 

 sound again, that he was not running into danger, 

 and then was the time for the shot. I have also been 

 lying by several bucks on my face in the heather, 

 unable to judge the best deer because they were also 

 couched, and, to raise them, I have given a short 

 sharp cry, not too loud ; and in many instances the 

 human voice, well regulated, will reach them enough 

 to make them aware that a man is within hearinfr, 

 without exposing his ambush or sending them away. 

 When they rise to look about them then is the time 

 for choice. Occasionally this plan fails ; for, if the 

 voice reaches them too distinctly, they bolt off with 

 their haunches to the danger, and a shot cannot be 

 taken. 



When the deer were very shy, at the commence- 

 ment of October, I wanted a good buck, and took a 



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