112 STAG-HUNTING ON EXMOOR. 



All points issuing from the main beam above the trey- 

 are counted as two, three, or four "on top," as the 

 case may be ; but one *' on top " is described either as 

 '* nothing on top " or simply as " upright." The brow, 

 bay, and trey antlers constitute what are called in the 

 West a stag's " rights," a term about which mistakes 

 are frequently made. Thus a stag "with all his rights 

 and three on top both horns" means a stag with 

 twelve points ; what is called in Scotland a royal head, 

 though the term is unknown in the west. Brow, trey, 

 uprights, indicates a stag of six points. 



Of the "rights," the brow antler is generally the 

 longest and the bay the shortest. The trey is fre- 

 quently as long as the brow, sometimes longer, but 

 generally somewhat shorter. It is not common for the 

 bay to be longer than the brow, but cases are not un- 

 known. It may be noticed that in the Bara-singh deer 

 of Kashmir the bay is almost invariably longer than 

 the brow, and takes its place as the main fighting 

 antler. 



The old west country theory of the growth of the 

 horns is as follows. Until he is one year old the male 

 deer has no horns. In his second year he has a knob 

 of bones, about two inches in height, thrown out on 

 each side of the head ; at the age of three a spire or 



