RUTTING OP HARTS. 17 



combatants. Two large harts, after a furious and deadly 

 thrust, had entangled their horns so firmly together that 

 they were inextricable, and the victor remained with the 

 vanquished. In this situation they were discovered by the 

 forester, who killed the survivor, whilst he was yet strug- 

 gling to release himself from his dead antagonist.. The 

 horns remain at Gordon Castle, still locked together as 

 they were found. Mezentius himself never attached the 

 dead body to the living one in a firmer manner. 



A hart will rut for about a week, after which period he 

 becomes weak and exhausted, and seeks some solitary spot 

 where he may recruit himself in peace : no wonder, indeed, 

 since during this week he is constantly with a large herd 

 of hinds, at times fighting, and always in a state of the 

 highest irritation ; for, at the darkening, another and 

 another hart will come in, and take some of the hinds from 

 him : he then gives chase furiously, but is obliged to return, 

 after a short space, for fear of losing the remainder. At 

 length, the old harts that have rutted collect, and go off 

 together in large parcels, and the younger ones succeed 

 to the hinds. During the winter they have long wiry 

 coats of a lighter cast of colour, and are wholly without fat, 

 and in every respect unfit for the table. The winter coat 

 begins to come off when they drop their horns, and the 

 new coat appears about the middle of June. 



Neither Mr. John Crerar, who has followed deer in the 

 forest of Atholl for sixty years, nor any other individual 

 there, has ever seen a hart cover a hind, though I do not 

 deny that others may have done so. 



The period of gestation in a hind is eight months. She 

 drops her fawn in high heather, where she leaves it con- 



