STALKING BUCKS 251 



shot. I have also been lying by several bucks on my face in the 

 heather, unable to judge the best deer because they were also 

 couched, and, to raise them, I have given a short sharp cry, not 

 too loud ; and in many instances the human voice, well regulated, 

 will reach them enough to make them aware that a man is 

 within hearing, without exposing his ambush or sending them 

 away. When they rise to look about them then is the time for 

 choice. Occasionally this plan fails ; for, if the voice reaches 

 them too distinctly, they bolt off with their haxmches to the 

 danger, and a shot cannot be takeii. 



Wlien the deer wei-e very shy, at the commencement of 

 October, I wanted a good buck, and took a great deal of trouble 

 to get him. After searching the forest all day I discovei'ed a 

 herd of about thirty deer, and among them some of the best 

 bucks left in the vicinity of Burley Lodge ; but they were all on 

 a little narrow lawn, feeding or lying down, in the midst of 

 short heather, with not a bush to screen the stalker. It was a 

 gusty day, with occasional showei-s ; the wind being high, much 

 in my favour. It was a long and a wet stalk I had to make 

 through the wet weather, and when the sun came out I lay still, 

 when it blew and rained, then ci-awled on again. The heather 

 was scarce above the top of my head, however low it was carried ; 

 and in some places, to keep out of sight, I was obliged to crawl 

 on my breast. Now and then a little suspicious and capricious 

 doe would look about her ; once she either caught sight of my 

 shoulder or a motion in the heather, and stared for about ten 

 minutes right at me, but I lay on my face, with an occasional 

 peep between the roots, and, so long as her forehead and erect 

 ears were visible, I remained still. She at last also lay down, and 

 then, when I looked up, nothing could be seen of the herd but 

 the broad palmated tops of the old bucks' horns. " Now is the 

 time," I thought ; and on I crept, resolved not to cease from an 

 endeavour in this cramped position, wet as I was, till I got 

 within shot. I peeped up again, and found myself within fifty 

 yards of the herd, all of them very quiet and lying do^vn close 

 together, their haimches to the wind and their heads obliquely 



