466 THE STAG. 



more. The hind, or female, is ugually smaller. The prevailing 

 colour is reddish brown in the summer, but brownish grey in 

 the winter. The eyes are large and full. Deer and antelopes 

 have a curious aperture beneath each eye, and it has been 

 asserted that they can both smell and breathe through this 

 orifice when their heads are deeply immersed in the water 

 in the act of drinking, or when they are hard run j but 

 anatomists assure us that this notion is proved to be false 

 on dissection. These apertures, or subocular sinuses, are called 

 larmiers by the French, because a matter exudes from them, 

 and runs down the cheek, like tears. The antlers, unlike the 

 real horns of other animals, are solid bones, and are formed 

 in the same manner, and possess the same composition and 

 structure as other bones. They remain on the head for 

 one year, being shed every spring, and replaced by another 

 and a larger pair in the summer. So rapidly do these instru- 

 ments grow, that an antler which may weigh a quarter of a 

 hundred weight is completely formed in ten weeks. The new 

 antlers are at first covered with a thick, soft, leaden-coloured 

 skin, called the velvet, and which remains on them till they 

 have become hardened, when it dries and falls off in shreds : a 

 process which the animal accelerates by rubbing the antlers 

 against the trees. Lord Bacon, in his Sylva Sylvarum (edit. 

 1651), says that " a bone is sometimes found in the heart of 

 a stag" (p. 157) j and more recently, in August 1835, Professor 

 Harrison read a paper on bones in the hearts of the RUMI- 

 NANTIA, before the British Association. 



The largest stag, being probably the strongest, is usually the 

 captain of the herd, and wherever he leads the rest follow. 

 When grazing there is always one of the herd, generally a 

 hind, stationed as sentinel, and upon the least suspicion being 

 excited, she gives the alarm, and off they all bound. As their 

 senses of sight, hearing, and smell are very acute and ever 

 active, the deer-stalkers approach the herd very cautiously, 

 silently advancing up the wind, and concealing themselves as 

 much as possible by the inequalities of the ground. Deer- 



