46 MY SPORTING HOLIDAYS 



There are at least two good reasons why the 

 amateur Hitteren stalker should, after he has acquired 

 some knowledge o the ground, go alone. First, 

 because a really scientific native stalker is the excep- 

 tion rather than the rule, and, secondly, because two 

 men crawling like conspirators through wood and glen 

 in search of a warrantable stag make double the noise 

 of one, and the aforesaid stag is so much the less likely 

 to be seen, or, if caught a glimpse of, to afford oppor- 

 tunity for a shot. 



From early dawn until 9 a.m., and from 4 p.m. or 

 so until dusk, are the proper times to find and kill a 

 Hitteren stag. No one who has not tried it can 

 realize the futility, as I may call it, of endeavouring to 

 find and kill a woodland stag when couched. He usually 

 lies throughout the day and the better the stag the 

 more certain the rule wherever possible between two 

 winds, with a good view to leeward, at times chewing 

 the cud, and with eye, ear, and nostril alive to every 

 hostile approach or unusual sound. The odds are 

 then all in his favour, and an inexperienced sports- 

 man might walk through Hitteren woods for hours in 

 the day without seeing a single deer, or knowing how 

 many had seen, heard, or winded him, and departed 

 unobserved. The yellow-brown body harmonizes so 

 exactly with pine-trees, yellow marsh, and purple 

 heather, that, even when on the move and feeding, 

 the deer is not so easily picked up, and when couched 

 the difficulty is tenfold increased. 



I once happened to get my glass on a good stag 

 as he stood on a wooded hill not half a mile away. 

 As I watched him, he lay down. My companion, 

 an experienced native with a keener and longer 

 sight than mine, not having seen him as he stood, 



