THE STAG. 99 



The old veneurs, as was observed in the preceding 

 chapter, knew of and recognised as reliable seventy-two 

 distinguishing signs. Many of these, however, were 

 merely slightly modified repetitions of others, with new 

 names attached to them. For my purpose, which is to 

 make the reader acquainted with the leading pecu- 

 liarities distinctive of the stag, it will be quite sufficient 

 to take a smaller number. The others would rather 

 serve to confuse than to instruct. 



Before, however, describing the more complicated 

 signs, it will be right to allude to the difference, in the 

 mere outward form, between the impression left on the 

 ground by a stag and a hind. This is the first thing to 

 be learned, and learned perfectly. From the fac- 

 simile here given this difference will be at once perceived. 

 That of the stag. A, is less pointed — is more obtuse in 

 its curvature — than that of the hind, b, which has al- 

 together a more elongated shape.* 



In comparing the impression left by the fore and hind 

 hoof of a stag, that of the fore hoof will be found to be 



* In mountainous districts the slots of both are shorter, more lohinted, 

 and rounder in form than of those deer living in the plain, the hoof 

 being worn away by the rocks and stones. In places, therefore, where 

 such deer come down into the lowlands, the track of a hind may easily 

 be mistaken for that of a stag. In such cases the form alone is not to 

 be taken as a ci-iterion, but other circumstances, hereafter to be mentioned, 

 must be noted and attended to before coming to a decision. 



H 2 



