COMBATS OF STAGS. 15 



for the table. Such deer a good sportsman never fires 

 at ; but many may be found at this time, not so forward, 

 but perfectly good ; and they are, of course, easily distin- 

 guished. This is a very wild and picturesque season. The 

 harts are heard roaring all over the forest, and are engaged 

 in savage conflicts with each other, which sometimes ter- 

 minate fatally. When a master hart has collected a 

 number of hinds, another will endeavour to take them 

 from him : they fight till one of them, feeling himself 

 worsted, will run in circles round the hinds, being unwil- 

 ling to leave them: the other pursues; and, when he 

 touches the fugitive with the points of his horns, the animal, 

 thus gored, either bounds suddenly on one side, and then 

 turns and faces him, or will dash off to the right or the left, 

 and at once give up the contest. The conflict, however, 

 generally continues a considerable time ; and nothing can 

 be more entertaining than to witness, as I have often done, 

 the varied success and address of the combatants. It is a 

 sort of wild joust, in the presence of the dames who, as of 

 old, bestowed their favours on the most valiant. Some- 

 times it is a combat a Voutrance, but it often terminates 

 with the effect of the horn of Astolfo. 



In solitary encounters, there being no hinds to take the 

 alarm, the harts are so occupied, and possessed with such 

 fury, that they may be occasionally approached in a man- 

 ner that it would be vain to attempt at any other time. 

 From the summit of a mountain in Atholl forest, I once 

 saw two harts in fierce contention, in a mossy part lower 

 down the hill. I came into sight at once, not expecting to 

 see deer in the situation in which these happened to be. 

 I could neither advance straight forward, nor retreat, 



