2 6 THE MAMMALS OF THE WOODS 



the herd and wander for miles and miles, driving the hinds to convenient places 

 and chasing the weaker stags away from them. While the stags have to keep 

 their own look-out, the hinds generally do the warning and watching in the mixed 

 herds. Such a herd is always headed by a leader — a hind — on whom its movements 

 depend, so long as it is not being driven by the stags. The master-stags always 

 come last as the herd issues from the forest ; and if a herd is seen during the 

 rutting-time accompanied by several big stags, it may safely be expected that about 

 three hundred yards behind the rest a still finer stag will follow. At this period, 

 which is in September and October, the harts separate from their companions 

 earlier than the young stags, in order to find the hinds. Having taken the troop 

 to the sheltering thicket the hart will bathe for hours, and restlessly wallow 

 in pools and morasses, till the mud makes him look quite black. Sometimes, 

 when he has just assembled his troop of hinds, there comes a rival to fight him 

 for his harem. If he is beaten, and is unwilling to give in, he continues to linger 

 round the herd. The conqueror pursues him, and occasionally the combat is 

 renewed. Often it is given up at once. Generally the first fight is a long one, 

 fortune sometimes favouring one, sometimes the other ; and so much is each 

 bent on his purpose that the excited animals notice the approach of man much less 

 than at other times. 



In the beginning of the rutting-season the stag brings his troop to the 

 thickets every morning, where they remain during the day, while he keeps aloof, 

 but later on he remains with them all day long. At first he calls only now and 

 then, afterwards beginning early in the afternoon, and continuing until morning. 

 From the power, depth, and hoarseness of his voice, his size may be estimated. 

 When the whole forest rings with his cry, the driving is at its highest point. 

 The young stags do not call because they are afraid of the older and stronger 

 ones. At the end of rutting-time, which commences after the completion of the 

 antlers and summer coat, the stags again live peacefully together. Then the winter 

 coat begins to grow, and by February the old stags drop their antlers, although 

 the younger ones do not shed theirs before May. In the former the antlers are 

 fully grown in June, in the latter not before August. After the shedding of the 

 antlers the summer coat grows, and when this is fully developed the hind, which 

 has been pregnant eight months and a half, drops her fawn. The fawn is born 

 in May or the beginning of June, and after some days follows its mother, from 

 whom it does not separate, except during the rutting-season. The new-born fawn 

 lies hidden amidst tall heather or other covert. By day it is left to itself, but in 

 the evening the mother returns to her offspring. Before leaving it she presses 

 it down with her nose to its couch, and there it remains the whole day, without 

 even raising its head, keeping its nose close to its tail like a dog. The hind never 

 goes far away, and is always on the alert for its safety, selecting a spot where the 

 wind blows from the direction of its hiding-place. Wild cats, foxes, and other 

 enemies are driven away by her at once. 



Red deer change their food according to the season. In autumn they feed 

 on beech-mast and acorns ; in winter on the bark of trees, twigs, heather, and moss. 

 In some districts they seem to have accustomed themselves to what they disdained 

 before; in northern Germany, for instance, deer have taken to eating potatoes for the 



