WAYS OF THE HUNTED 



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wariness, but no hare, or indeed any animal in England, can 

 approach the red deer in that quality. It seems to have 

 learned by inheritance the signs of man's approach, for man 

 is its only enemy in England. Some of the hardiest and 

 most skilled of sportsmen who hire the same deer forest in 

 Scotland year after year, and know the land to perfection, 

 are wholly unable, even with the most perfect of modern 

 weapons, to circumvent them. They have to rely largely 

 on the gillie, who is as much at home in 

 the so-called forest as the deer themselves ; 

 and the sportsmen readily confess the barren- 

 ness of their solitary stalking. The deer has 

 almost every quality that the hunted need ; 

 an acute nose, an acute ear, a marvellous 

 power of speed ; and greater power than 

 would be suspected by any visitor to a zoo 

 of suiting himself to his environment. The 

 hunter must know not only the nature and 

 habits of the quarry and the lie of the ground. 

 He must know even the course of air currents 

 and eddies, even the echoes of the hill. But 

 like many animals the deer is not always well 

 served by his eyes. Sounds and smells seem to satisfy 

 curiosity, to convey knowledge that is complete or com- 

 plete enough to suggest flight. The eyes, on the other 

 hand, stir curiosity ; and the hunter can use this curiosity. 

 Lying in sight of a deer, he sees that further approach is 

 useless. Any advance would certainly mean discovery. He 

 has waited in vain for the animal to move of its own way- 

 ward will. His only hope is to make the animal restless 

 but not fearful. Under such conditions, it is not an infre- 

 quent device of the stalker to flip pieces of moss up into 

 the air from his hiding-place. Such a sight is new in the 



