CH. X. HINDS AND CALVES. 147 



up myself, and have seen great numbers that have 

 been found on the hills. A man walking across a 

 rugged and extensive range of mountain cannot 

 expect to find very often an object so little conspi- 

 cuous as a stag's horn, unless he is a forester or 

 keeper, and as such living amongst the deer at all 

 times. There is no doubt, too, that deer have the 

 habit of chewing and breaking up horns or bones, or 

 any substance of the kind, that they find in their 

 wanderings ; in the same manner that cattle in a 

 field will chew for hours together a bone, old bit of 

 leather, or any other hard substance, to the neglect 

 of the clover or grass, or whatever food they may be 

 surrounded by. It is probable also that the deer 

 trample under the heather, in the course of their 

 working at it, any horn that comes in their way. 



When about to calve, the hinds retire to the 

 most lonely and undisturbed places, where there is 

 little risk of their young meeting with enemies while 

 unable to escape. For a few days they appear to 

 keep them in these safe solitudes, visiting them little 

 during the daytime ; but as soon as the calves have 

 acquired a certain degree of strength, they become 

 the inseparable companions of their mothers. Where 

 the hind is, there is the calf following its dam over 

 hill and dale. At first they are covered with white 

 marks, but, losing these, they are of a darkish brown, 



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