316 SHOOTING. 



the identical harts which, a century ago, bore the 

 scars of the weapons of his ancestors. An old 

 Celtic rhyme which has been thus Englished, shews 

 the great age to which the stag and the eagle are 

 supposed to arrive, 



THRICE THE AGE OF A DOG IS THAT OF A HORSE J 

 THRICE THE AGE OF A HORSE IS THAT OF A MAN ; 

 THRICE THE AGE OF A MAN IS THAT OF A DEER J 

 THRICE THE AGE OF A DEER IS THAT OF AN EAGLE. 



So far as regards eagles, these lines contain an 

 assertion which can neither be proved nor nega- 

 tived. That eagles live a very long time in a state 

 of captivity is notorious, but how much longer they 

 will live in a state of freedom is unknown. As 

 regards deer, there has long existed a custom, in 

 some of the Northern forests, of marking calves ; 

 and as the mark of each forester is known, it might 

 be supposed that the extreme age to which deer 

 arrive would ere this have been ascertained, but 

 such is not the fact. The concurrent testimony of 

 many traditions which bear the semblance of 

 truth, inasmuch as dates and names of persons and 

 places are given with much circumstantiality 

 assign to the stag an extreme longevity one hun- 

 dred, or one hundred and fifty years, and even 

 more but there is no one instance sufficiently well 

 authenticated in all particulars to be relied upon. 

 A stag in Richmond Park lived in a half-domesti- 

 cated state twenty years : and we believe that 

 there has not hitherto been any well-established 

 case of greater longevity made public ; and, conse- 

 quently, that the age to which a stag will live has 



