300 HUNTING PRELIMINARIES. 



knowledge that vixens heavy with young, or suckling their 

 cubs, may be furnishers of blood. Of course hounds, when 

 possible, are stopped off a heavy vixen, or one which has laid 

 up her cubs. 



Captain King-King gives me the following notes : — 



" The season for hunting wild stag and buck is from early 

 in August to the middle of October ; the former being about 

 the time their heads become ' clean ' (devoid of velvet) ; and 

 the latter the beginning of their rutting season, during which 

 they lose condition, and do not regain it until the spring grass 

 appears. If they are fed, they will recover their strength much 

 quicker than if left to Nature. They are at their best during 

 summer, which is the only part of the year that is suitable 

 for hunting in wild rough districts, such as forests and moors. 

 Wild stag are occasionally hunted in spring. The rutting 

 season is naturally the cause of their being unprofitable 

 animals to hunt in winter. The New Forest used to hunt 

 bucks in spring, and occasionally in winter. Although bucks 

 are a little later than stags, the same rules apply to them. 

 After the wild stag and buck season has closed, there is a 

 short interval before the commencement of hind hunting, 

 which comparatively poor sport goes on through the winter, 

 and ceases when hinds are palpably in calf. 



" The roe ruts in summer, and is in condition all the winter. 

 Unlike the British deer, he sheds his horns in the autumn or 

 early winter, and consequently is our only wild male deer that 

 can be profitably hunted during the ' hunting season.' Unfor- 

 tunately he is a short-running, dodging brute, which sticks to 

 coverts, and is not much better than a hare. 



" With carted deer, hinds and haviers (unsexed deer) will 

 have to be used until about the middle of December. When 

 stags are cut as calves, they do not get horns, and are called 

 ' polled haviers.' They then have lost so much the appear- 

 ance of their sex, that few people can tell them from big 



