30 FOREST CREATURES. 



When the animal is in j^ain the cry is a rough, 

 disagreeable bleat. The kid calls its mother and the 

 mother her kid by a sound not unlike a fine " peep, 

 peep " in a high key ; the first somewhat longer, the 

 second short and suddenly ending. The cry of each may 

 be easily distinguished by the tone ; that of the kid 

 having the shriller tone peculiar to infancy. The doe of 

 a year old, when pursued for the first time by the buck 

 in the rutting season, utters the same cry as complaint. 

 \Mien the rutting season begins, the buck may be 

 attracted to the spot where you stand concealed, by 

 imitating the call of the doe. The imitation must be 

 good, however, or he will discover the cheat and be off, 

 and no enticement will then lure him back again. 

 Broad grass, or, still better, the fine rind of the birch 

 placed between the lips, gives the sound most naturally ; 

 and not unfrequently, when the usual cry of the female 

 fails to attract him, if you imitate the finer note of a 

 much younger one, just bursting into blooming doe- 

 hood, the old libertine will prick up his ears, his head 

 becomes erect, and with a bound or two he leaps to the 

 spot where he expects to find the delicate object of his 

 hopes. But you must be very quiet, or an unusual 

 sound, a movement however gentle, mil be sufficient to 

 make him shy. For passionate, intensely passionate, 

 as is his ardour, it does not blind him to the presence 

 of danger, as with the stag ; he gazes and listens as he is 



