62 FOEEST CREATURES. 



horn, now bared of its covering, may be called hard, in 

 comparison to its recent state, it is not as much so as it 

 becomes later. There is a gradation in its hardness: it 

 is, for example, not so hard in July as when, in the 

 following year, it drops from the animal's head. Some 

 antlers, indeed, even then, are not quite hard. The new 

 horn bears traces of blood, its white colour soon changes 

 into a dark brown, except the points, which always retain 

 their lighter hue. As it now is, so it remains for a 

 season of one year's duration, then again to topple 

 down, and be again replaced by another prouder and 

 statelier than before. 



With each year the number of sprays increases. An 

 additional one is put forth generally on each beam ; 

 though occasionally, when the pasture is particularly 

 nutritious, a stag that one year had but twelve points 

 may, in the next succeeding, appear with sixteen.* As I 



* In counting the points, an uneven number is oiever given as the 

 result. A stag is said to have ten, twelve, fourteen, sixteen, &c., but 

 not nine, eleven, or thirteen points. If, for example, there are on one 

 beam six, and on the other but five sprays, the larger number is always 

 taken as the half of the sum total, which would thus be twelve. But in 

 order to indicate that the number given was not complete, instead of 

 speaking of such stag simply as " a stag of twelve," the word " un- 

 gerade'' (odd, uneven) is added, which indicates that on one beam there 

 was an odd number of points. No matter how great the diiFerence be- 

 tween the number on the two beams, the larger number is to be taken 

 as furnishing the half of the whole sum. If there were but three points 

 on one, while the other had six, the stag would still be called " a stag 

 of twelve," or rather " imgerade twelve." 



