314 SHOOTING. 



a hind killed by mistake, the day often terminates ; 

 but frequent failures tend only to heighten the 

 pleasure of ultimate success. 



We do not know whether an apology is due for 

 the warmth, flashiness, or flippancy, we so fre- 

 quently affect ; certain it is, sportsmen do not 

 speak of their doings as if reading a church-homily ; 

 therefore, we think it would be out of place here to 

 write in that key-note. Right or wrong, we will 

 go on as we have begun, endeavouring to keep our 

 readers in humour, because it is good for their 

 health; and, moreover, we take credit for being 

 marvellously good-humoured ourself, when not put 

 out of the way. We must now attempt a brief 

 description of wild-deer and deer-forests, and then 

 conclude the chapter with some of the events of a 

 successful stalk. 



The red-deer or stag, is found chiefly in the un- 

 cultivated mountainous districts of Scotland and 

 Ireland. The greater part of his body is a dark 

 red-brown colour. He is a much more noble ani- 

 mal in appearance than the calf-like fallow-deer. 

 His height, when erect, is seven or eight feet from 

 the ground to the tip of his horns. To destroy 

 the deer of an adversary was once a mode of an- 

 noyance. Chevy Chase, it would seem, from the 

 opening stanzas of the famous ballad of that name, 

 was an expedition of this description : 



To drive the Deer with Hound and Horn, 



Earl Piercy took his Way ; 

 The Child may rue that was unborn. 



The Hunting of that Day. 



