THE STAG IN THE RUTTING SEASON. 29 



fawns of last year ; but now on the skirts of the herd he 

 sees — or at first thinks he sees — a pair of branching an- 

 tlers towering in the air ; and behold ! the monarch is 

 indeed returned. He has added another embattlement 

 to his crown since he was last seen ; in stature too he is 

 changed, and well indeed may he claim, irrespective of 

 his diadem, to be called " a royal hart." But how dif- 

 ferent now his look from that time when he disappeared 

 in the wilderness ; like the prodigal, who, with wasted 

 strength and but a wreck of his former self, skulks away 

 that he may be seen by none. How worn and broken 

 down did he leave the scenes of all his pleasures, and how 

 vigorous and in what gallant trim does he return ! Should 

 a rival dare to loiter about the spot, he goes forth to 

 meet him, to do battle for his rights ; to maintain them 

 or be vanquished in the encounter. No knight, burning 

 to achieve a deed of chivalry, ever charged down upon a 

 foe with more valiant daring than will he, when he sees 

 approaching the antlers of some new wooer tossing in the 

 air and seeming to defy him to combat. Nor does the 

 challenge remain unanswered : with his brow-antlers 

 lowered like a lance in the rest, he rushes on the foe, 

 and lucky is the intruder if he can ward the thrust; 

 for should it penetrate his ribs or shoulders he would 

 most surely pay for his temerity with his life.* 



* It is not more than three weeks since the day on which I write this 

 (December 5th), that a young stag, one of six only, rushed upon another, 

 and striking his brow-antlers into his side killed him on the spot. It 

 was a strange occurrence, on account of its being late in the season ; had 

 it been a month earlier there would have been nothing surprising in it. 

 During the rutting season however the weaker stags are kept away from 

 the herd by the stronger ones ; and when these go, the younger ones 

 then take their place, and are in their turn as fierce and as jealous of an 

 intruder as their more potent rivals were before them. 



