DEEK-STALKING. 9 



The red deer (Cervus Elephas) is also known as 

 the hart and the stag. The height of the British 

 stag is somewhere about four feet ; and he arrives at 

 great weight in some localities : in the Duke of 

 Athol's quarters it is asserted that stags have been 

 shot which weighed upwards of thirty stone. At 

 Woburn, we are told, they have reached thirty-four 

 stone ; while the predecessor of the present Glen- 

 garry is said to have killed one which, after the offal 

 was removed, weighed thirty-six stone. 



The stag royal is the chieftain of the wild. 

 There was a tame one once kept at a shooting-lodge 

 of Lord Breadalbane's, which attacked all who came 

 near it, except the foresters, and at last was removed 

 to the park, at Taymouth. He became so savage and 

 expert with his antlers, that Mr. Colquhoun was 

 informed he had killed two horses, and that no one 

 dared to pass his haunt unless he knew them. The 

 red deer is fond of water, to which he has recourse as 

 well for pleasure, as for protection when pressed by 

 hounds. "We passed, during the day," writes a 

 highland stalker, " several forest-baths in full use 

 that is, moss-holes, where the stags plunge up to the 

 neck, and roll about to cool themselves, in summer 

 and autumn. When they come out again, black as 

 pitch, they look like the evil genii of the mountain. 

 In former times, poachers used to fasten spears, with 

 the points upwards, in these places, and when the 

 stag threw himself into the hole, he became impaled." 



The full-grown harts, both male and female, 



