110 STAG-HUNTING ON EXMOOR, 



round the place where she has left her calf, and this 

 constant returning to the same spot is a sure sign, 

 even if no calf has been seen, that she has left one 

 thereabout. So also when the calf has grown strong 

 and can run some way with a hind she will constantly 

 stick to the paths in the covers where the little one 

 can travel more easily ; and if a herd be roused, a hind 

 and calf will always be the first on foot. It is in hinds 

 more especially that the action of the ears as indicative 

 of the temper of the animal may be observed. Hinds 

 (and presumably stags also) are in this respect like 

 horses; they lay back their ears when angry. The 

 writer has seen a hind calf dash at some fallow fawns 

 with which she was kept in a park, with as evil an ex- 

 pression as that of a vicious mare. 



There are (or were) in Devon and Somerset, and 

 doubtless in other countries also, peculiar names for 

 the male red deer at different stages of his existence. 

 Thus in his first year he is called a calf; in the second 

 a " knobber," " knobbler," or " brocket" (a two-year- 

 old hind is called a "hearst"); in his third year a 

 "spire" or "pricket;" in his fourth a "staggart;" 

 in his fifth a stag or warrantable deer ; at and after his 

 sixth year a stag. These names are not so commonly 

 nor so distinctively employed now as formerly, but 



