1^6 STAG-HUNTING ON EXMOOR. 



always have a deer ready for you (as old Jim Black- 

 more once said) in a bag. 



Meanwhile it is a mystery where some of the old 

 stags manage to secrete themselves during the autumn. 

 Some think they contrive to hide in ledges inaccessible 

 to hounds, on the cliffs ; but though there may be some 

 truth in this, other reasons may be found to account 

 for it. One thing is certain, that stags know their 

 season. Many more are seen in winter than in autumn, 

 •and they behave during the hind-hunting season, un- 

 less hounds be actually on their line, with the greatest 

 composure. Mr. Bisset records that one day three 

 stags watched the process of hunting a hind on Had- 

 don Hill with utter unconcern, and that one of them 

 actually lay down three yards in front of the whip's 

 horse, and refused to get up- The writer himself has 

 seen four stags stand for an hour on Dunkery Beacon 

 contemplating, apparently with some enjoyment, the 

 chase of a hind on the hillside below them. The most 

 probable reason for an occasional blank day in favourite 

 covers is that the stags are lying close in some thicket 

 within them all the time. All deer (except hinds with 

 calves), and especially old stags, will lie like stones. 

 More than one has received a nip in the haunch before 

 it would rise, and once a young male deer was actually 



