286 AN INVASION OF RATS AND MICE. 



once proceeding in quest of this famous beast. We had gone 

 about a mile up a burn that flowed through the glen, when 

 we heard a bellow in the wood above us ; we therefore sat 

 down and listened. Soon it was repeated, this time lower 

 down in the wood and nearer, as though the stag were about 

 to cross the glen higher up ; so we quietly moved on. We 

 had not gone far when I caught sight of a hind a short way 

 ahead. She was crossing the burn, and, from her nervous 

 behaviour, it was evident she had got wind of us. Just 

 then I felt a tug at my coat from the man following behind 

 me, who directed my attention to the head and shoulder of 

 a good stag which was standing, within easy range, among 

 the trees ; but before I could cover him with the rifle he was 

 gone. He was a light- coloured stag, and certainly not the 

 beast we wanted to find. 



My tent had been pitched close to a corn-stack, in con- 

 sequence of which I was kept awake almost the whole night 

 by an invasion of rats and mice, that seemed to be amusing 

 themselves by running races over my bed. Next day our 

 search for the black fellow was again unsuccessful, the only 

 thing seen or heard being a stag with short horns, which we 

 "jumped" in the dusky twilight, and I missed. 



The following morning we tried the ground where I had 

 killed the first stag, as the one we were now hunting for 

 was supposed to have his present haunt in the dense wood 

 below it. Towards evening we sat down among the tall 

 brackens to watch the edge of the wood from the old spot. 

 After waiting for an hour or more, we were almost startled 

 by a loud bellow, which was soon repeated quite close to us 

 in the wood. Presently a small beast with short prongs 

 emerged from the cover on to the open side of the ridge, 

 where he at once commenced feeding. But I felt quite 

 certain that this was not the animal that had just bellowed 

 so loudly, and as he kept looking back towards the wood, I 

 was equally confident he was not alone. As he fed gradually 



