ii6 STAG-HUNTING ON EXMOOR. 



he adds, may carry them a month or two later ; but 

 this seems to be, perhaps, somewhat of an exag^gera- 

 tion. Before the time of shedding their horns the 

 stags retire, as a rule, to the deepest and thickest 

 coverts, and there wait till the new horns begin to 

 sprout. For this reason little is known of the process 

 of horn -shedding among the wild deer, but from obser- 

 vation both of fallow and red deer confined in parks 

 it is known that both horns are rarely shed at exactly 

 the same time, one often remaining on a day after 

 the other has been cast. This would account for the 

 fact that of the few shed horns that are picked up, 

 still fewer are pairs. The loss of the horn is attended 

 by acute pain for some minutes, and profuse bleed- 

 ing ; then the exposed part scabs over, and the new 

 horn, whereof the presence is already indicated by a 

 swelling at the base of the old one, begins, it would 

 seem, to grow at once. A fallow buck has no sooner 

 shed his horns than he is attacked by the others in 

 the park that still carry them ; and should he have 

 shed only one, sometimes has the other knocked away 

 in the struggle. It is hardly probable that wild deer 

 would expose themselves to this danger, since they 

 have plenty of room to keep apart from each other. 

 A shed horn may easily be distinguished from one 



