Ii8 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



is practically unknown on the Continent. In consequence of 

 this, stalking can only take place at a season of the year when 

 the stag betrays his whereabouts by the call or roar he emits 

 at rutting time. 



The rutting season of the Alpine stag varies triflingly, but 

 as a rule it may be said to begin about September 25, and 

 to end on or about October 10 or 15. Prior to that time, from 

 the moment when the stag's antlers are clear of velvet, he is 

 literally unapproachable in the dense thickets he loves to 

 frequent at this period. Though necessarily a high feeder at 

 this season, during which he has to lay up a goodly stock of fat 

 for the exciting and exhausting times of the rut, he nevertheless 

 comes out to feed only at night-time, and he hears as well as 

 scents danger afar. So suspicious is he that, as an old proverb 

 says, ' he flies from his own shadow.' To stalk him under such 

 conditions in a densely timbered country is, of course, hopeless ; 

 so that his chase during August and the first half of September 

 can only be successfully achieved by driving the forest with 

 beaters (dogs, except for tracking wounded game, being of course 

 very much out of place), and this driving is considered but poor 

 sport by those who have an opportunity of killing the same 

 animal by stalking a few weeks later. 



In this stalking, the call of the stag plays a principal part. 

 Unmelodious as is this hoarse challenge for the virile champion- 

 ship of the herd, it is a glorious sound to the ear of the 

 sportsman. Whether heard in timber-line regions of the Alps, 

 or in the tangled depth of German or Hungarian forests, or 

 in the elevated uplands of the Rocky Mountains, it has about 

 it as true a ring of sport as the first music from the pack in 

 covert. 



In stalking the Alpine stag during the 'Brunft,' as the 

 Austrians call the rutting time, in forests that are strictly pre- 

 served, the assistance of keepers saves much time which other- 

 wise would have to be expended by the sportsman in discover- 

 ing the favourite locality frequented by the stags. Stags when 

 the instincts of the season are full upon them are 'up and 



