>m;M>ING OF HOI; 7 



iii tlic act of shedding bis horns, in a forest in Sutherland. 

 \Vliil?t he was browsing, one of his antlers was seen to 

 incline leisurely to one side, and immediately to fall down 

 to the ground: the stag tossed up his head, as if in 

 surprise, and began to shake it pretty violently, when the 

 remaining antler was discarded also, and fell some little 

 distance from him. Relieved from this weight, he ex- 

 (1 his sense of buoyancy by bounding high from the 

 ground, as if in sport, and then, tossing his bare head, 

 dashed right away in a confused and rapid manner. 



Both horns are not always shed at the same time, but 

 one of them occasionally drops a day or two after the 

 other. I myself have seldom found any other than single 

 horns in the mosses of the forest. It is a remarkable fact, 

 however, that the number which are picked up in any 

 forest bears no proportion to those which are shed; and 

 this cannot arise from their being overlooked, for they are 

 a valuable perquisite to the keepers, and there is no part 

 of the forest that is not traversed by them in the course of 

 the season. 



AVhat, then, becomes of them ? Hinds have been seen 

 to eat them : one will consume a part, and, when she drops 

 it, it will be taken up and gnawed by the others. The 

 late Duke of Atholl, indeed, once found a dead hind which 

 had been choked by a part of the horn, that remained 

 sticking in its throat. Ifris not, however, credible that all 

 those which are missing are disposed of in this way ; they 

 rather seem to be thus eaten from wantonness and caprice, 

 and I am not able to account satisfactorily for their 

 disappearance. 



The new horns, which deer acquire annually, are covered 



B 4 



