CH. X. HINDS AND CALVES. 147 



found ; I have frequently picked them up myself, 

 and have seen great numbers that have been found 

 on the hills. A man walking across a rugged and 

 extensive range of mountain cannot expect to find 

 very often an object so little conspicuous as a stag's 

 horn, unless he is a forester or keeper, and as such 

 living amongst the deer at all times. There is no 

 doubt, too, that deer have the habit of chewing and 

 breaking up horns or bones, or any substance of the 

 kind, that they find in their wanderings ; in the 

 same manner that cattle in a field will chew for 

 hours together a bone, old bit of leather, or any 

 other hard substance, to the neglect of the clover 

 or grass, or whatever food they may be surrounded 

 by. It is probable, also, that the deer trample 

 under the heather, in the course of their working 

 at it, any horn that comes in their way. 



When about to calve, the hinds retire to the 

 most lonely and undisturbed places, where there is 

 "little risk of their young meeting with enemies while 

 unable to escape. For a few days they appear to 

 keep them in these safe solitudes, visiting them little 

 during the daytime ; but as soon as the calves have 

 acquired a certain degree of strength, they become 

 the inseparable companions of their mothers. Where 

 the hind is, there is the calf following its dam over 

 hill and dale. At first they are covered with white 



