SHEEP AND GOATS 393 



a bad plan to get at deer too early, before the lower 

 ground has been well searched with the glass for the 

 smaller herds which may be feeding, otherwise the 

 latter may make off, if the weather is wild, to the 

 larger herds and they all may go away out of the 

 forest, and not return for some time. On such days 

 it is far better to return home rather than run the risk 

 of doing harm. 



If a deer-forest is not cleared of sheep, the stalker 

 will experience increased difficulty in getting near the 

 deer, and nothing is more trying to the temper than 

 the presence of sheep or goats. There is but one way 

 of overcoming the obstructionists, and that is to stalk 

 them even more carefully, so as to pass them without 

 giving them the wind, than the deer the stalker is 

 endeavouring to approach. Wild goats may be very 

 fine quarry to stalk when there is nothing better, but 

 they are a curse in a deer forest. When sheep once 

 observe the stalker, it is all up, unless it be but an 

 uncertain glimpse ; in which case he should sink down- 

 gradually out of their sight, and pass round again down 

 wind, under the hill, and leave them to gaze until 

 they are tired; they will not then back and startle every 

 sheep for miles. One sheep has often been the means 

 of spoiling a whole day's sport. 



Now and then it is feasible to move deer which may 

 be in the way of a stalk, by imitating a bird, or showing 

 a stick moved slowly up and down ; but this must be 

 done quietly, and will serve to make hinds suspicious 

 and uncomfortable, and they will often move into the 

 corrie into which it is desired to move them, out of the 

 way of the stalk, which is required for the stag. I 

 have at times been able to effect the same by a low 



