CYNEGETICA, II. 177-186 



Stags." goodly of horn, large of eye, handsome, of 

 dappled back, spotted, conspicuous, river-s\\-imming,* 

 lofty of head, fat of chine and lean of shank ; the 

 neck is weak and the tail again is very small ; the 

 nostrils are fourfold,*^ four passages for the breath ; 

 the heart is weak and the spirit within cowardly ** ; 

 and the pointed horns that rise so high are but 

 dummies ; for they will never with their heads con- 

 tend against strong wild beasts nor fierce dogs, nor 

 even the timid hare of furry legs. 



afFordiiie^ them free respiration ; and no doubt these addi- 

 tional nostrils are thrown open when they are hard run. . . . 

 Oppian, the Greek poet, by the following line [i.e. 181] 

 seems to have had some notion that stags have four 

 spiracula." Dr. James Ritchie, Royal Scottish Museum, 

 Edinburgh, writes: "The spiracula of deer, or. as they 

 are now called, the sub-orbital glands, vary a great deal in 

 their development in different species of deer, but in many 

 cases the glands seem to be of very considerable importance, 

 lying in specially deep depressions in the skull. The glands 

 secrete a waxy material, and I have seen this oozing in 

 masses, even after red deer had been dead for several 

 days. The secretion is most active during the pairing 

 season, and there are a number of observations showing 

 that deer seem deliberately to rub the secretion upon trees 

 and stones. The suggestion has been made that this is in 

 order to convey the scent of their passing, and this might 

 be the effect even if we attribute the rubbing simply to a 

 desire to get rid of the annoyance of surplus secretion. . . . 

 The sul>-orbital gland has a sort of contractile lip which, 

 closed at one time, may at another be so pulled back that 

 the inner surface is everted and there is exposed the large 

 cavity of the gland lined with pink raucous membrane. 

 The action and the appearance are quite enough to suggest 

 similarity with the movement and appearance of the nostrils, 

 but of course there is no sort of connexion between the 

 sub-orbital glands and the air-passages." 



'' A. 488 b 15 TO. 8i <pp6vifia Kal SeiXd, olov f\a(pos, da<7i'irov$ ; 

 cf. Suid. and E. M. s. €\d<ptio^. 



71 



