CHAPTER THE LAST. 409 



the mere killing which affords him pleasure who stalks 

 through the forest in pursuit of game. Besides the na- 

 tural appearances which will meet him at almost every 

 step, and which contribute so largely to his delight, he 

 has another interest, — the observation of the habits of 

 animals. In dense forests this is not so easy ; but in the 

 beech-woods, where there is less undergrowth, and where 

 too the sun can penetrate more easily through the spread- 

 ing boughs, and so illumine the leaf-strewn ground and 

 the beds of green and brown moss, there you often can 

 observe the creatures in their forest- home, and get well 

 acquainted with their family or household life. It is a 

 pretty sight to watch the care of the doe for her fawn, or 

 to see the two playing together, as a happy human mother 

 will do with her baby; or, if very still, you may steal 

 forward near enough to see the majestic stag himself at 

 rest in the shade, and may observe how he enjoys the 

 coolness of the spot, and, with a languid Sybarite air, 

 now lifts, now turns his head, and puts back his vast 

 antlers even upon his broad sides and shoulders. But he 

 hears a sound ! or did the breath of air that rustled 

 through the leaves carry to his nostrils the taint of your 

 neighbourhood? He is no longer the slothful Sardana- 

 palus he was before, but with bold front and head erect, 

 is now " every inch a king." 



Amonff a familv of wild-boars I have sometimes re- 

 marked one — generally a weakling, and more helpless than 

 the rest, for with boars, as with men, the strong like 

 to show their power — who was buffeted and ill-treated 

 by all his brothers and sisters. Do what he would, no- 

 thing was right; sometimes the mother, uttering a dis- 

 approving grunt, would give him a nudge, to make him 

 move more quickly, and that w r ould be a sign for all the 

 rest of his relations to begin showing their contempt for 



