STAG, HIND, AND CALF. 123 



of Saxony at Moritzburg, where, in addition to a 

 number of magnificent heads, there is a collection of 

 " monstrosities," which exemplify how a red deer's 

 horns can take the form even of a ram's or an ante- 

 lope's. There, too, may be seen pictures of the great 

 deer battues which were the delight of Augustus the 

 Strong, wherein the representations of beaten stags 

 in the Elbe surrounded with baying hounds, all drawn 

 by the hand of Lucas Kranach, are marvellously truth- 

 ful and vigorous, a great contrast to those of many 

 modern artists who have chosen the same subject. 



These deformities are due either to extreme old age 

 or to injury, for anything that tends to affect the 

 health of the deer, be it starvation, or the breaking of 

 a limb, or the bullet of the cruel clumsy poacher, must 

 inevitably tell on the growth of the horn. Old age 

 and enfeebled circulation are necessarily connected 

 together, and hence the blunt points above mentioned. 

 Castration, says Dr. Collyns, has a certain effect on 

 the deer. If the operation be performed when the deer 

 has no horns he will never grow any; if when the 

 horns are in velvet, they will always remain so unshed ; 

 if when the horns are fully developed, they too will 

 never be shed, but remain in the same stage unaltered. 

 Partial castration, he adds, will probably be followed 



