384 CHAMOIS HUNTING. 



growth, and where too the sun can penetrate more 

 easily through the spreading boughs, and so illumine 

 the leaf-strewn ground and the beds of green and 

 brown moss, there you often can observe the creatures 

 in their forest -home, and get well acquainted with their 

 family or household life. It is a pretty sight to watch 

 the care of the doe for her fawn, or to see the two 

 playing together as a happy human mother will do 

 with her baby ; or, if very still, you may steal for- 

 ward near enough to see the majestic stag himself 

 at rest in the shade, and may observe how he enjoys 

 the coolness of the spot, and, with a languid Sybarite 

 air, now lifts, now turns his head, and puts back his 

 vast antlers even upon his broad sides and shoulders. 

 But he hears a sound ; or did the breath of air that 

 rustled through the leaves carry to. his nostrils the 

 taint of your neighbourhood? He is no longer the 

 slothful Sardanapalus, but with bold front and head 

 erect, he is now " every inch a king." 



Among a family of wild-boars I have sometimes re- 

 marked one, generally a weakling, and more helpless 

 than the rest, for with boars, as with men, the strong 

 like to show their power, who was buffeted and ill- 

 treated by all his brothers and sisters. Do what he 

 would, nothing was right ; sometimes the mother, utter- 

 ing a disapproving grunt, would give him a nudge, to 

 make him move more quickly, and that would be a 

 sign for all the rest of his relations to begin showing 

 their contempt for him too. One would push him, 

 and then another ; for, go where he might, he was sure 



