HABITS OF DEER. 187 



with the habits of deer. First, as regards the dis- 

 appearance of the horns which are yearly shed by the 

 stags. It has been thought extraordinary, that in a 

 district where there are perhaps several thousand deer, 

 and consequently some hundreds of stags, who annually 

 cast off a couple of horns each, not more than a few 

 score of these horns are ever found. Our informant 

 accounts for this fact in the following way. They 

 either bury their horns, or destro} T them with their 

 teeth. He says he has himself seen deer, at the 

 period of spring, when they cast their horns, trampling 

 them down in the moist soil of the peat-bogs, which 

 are so common among the hills. That they were so 

 employed he has abundant proof, for more than once, 

 after thus disturbing the deer, he has gone to the spot, 

 and discovered the remains of horns, half buried and 

 broken up, the fragments bearing the marks of teeth 

 upon them; and though it may be thought that the 

 horns are of a substance too hard for this, yet the jaw 

 of the deer is very powerful. Another consideration 

 which seems to make this the more probable is, that 

 scarcely ever are the horns of a young stag discovered, 

 being of course, from their size, more easy of destruc- 

 tion than the antlers of a full-grown stag. 



Secondly, as regards the formation of a herd. A 

 hind's young do not, as in the c#se of many other 

 animals, desert their mother when they cease to suck, 

 but continue to attend her as long as she lives ; and as 

 they in their turn i.e. the females among them soon 

 rear each of them a progeny to themselves, she is often 

 accompanied by many successive generations, who con- 

 tinue to resort together to the same haunts and parts 

 of the forest for many years. Thus is a herd formed, 

 and this herd is invariably headed by some patriarchal 

 stag, whose powers, yet unimpaired, support the dignity 



