THE STAG. 63 



have remarked elsewhere*, " The antlers of a stag are his 

 badge, the feature by which he is known and identified 

 year after year, in mountain and in forest. They are 

 what a strongly marked countenance is among men." 

 And they become thus characteristic because, in the 

 peculiarity of their original formation, they suffer no 

 change, although the antler of each year is a totally new 

 growth. The new horn is always a counterpart of the 

 one shed, with the addition of two or more sprays. The 

 form of the whole, however, whether spreading or narrow, 

 whether elongated or of stunted growth, preserves its 

 distinguishing characteristics, and thus, for a series 

 of years, a stag is known, and, when caught sight of, 

 is recognised as surely as we men may recognise any 

 of our human acquaintance.! On the mountain the 

 forester may by chance find such horn which the stag 

 has shed ; and he knows at once the very individual to 

 which it belonged, as surely as though he had seen it 

 dropping from the animal's head. Occasionally it so 

 chances that the shed antlers of one and the same stag 

 are found for several years in succession ; and you then 

 perceive how the bold curve of the beam or the bend of 



^ Landseer as a Naturalist and Landscape Painter. Frazer s Ma- 

 gazine, July 1856. 



t As an example of this, see "Tracking the Wounded Stag," ch. xxviii. 

 of " Chamois Hunting in the Mountains of Bavaria and the Tp'ol," 

 second edition. 



