276 STAG-HUNTING 



thing really certain seems to be that you cannot tell 

 a stag's age accurately by his horns, and that the 

 authorities differ as to the head a stag may be expected 

 to bear at different ages. The preceding table makes 

 this very plain, and it may be interesting to compare 

 it with the description of the horns shed each year 

 by a stag that was stolen off Exmoor by a Dr. Clarke 

 of Lynmouth about forty years ago, and kept in a 

 small paddock by him ; the said horns being now in 

 the Albert Museum at Exeter. 



Br. signifies brow antler, B. bay, T. trey : the 

 figures thereafter indicate the number of points on top. 

 This table may be further compared by the curious 

 with the following, which is taken with additions from 

 Mr. John Fortescue's book, and brought up to date, 

 and shows the heads actually borne at their death 

 by a few deer whose ages were known. 



In the cases, at any rate, of those deer that were 

 originally taken as calves or yearlings, there can be no 

 doubt about the age at death, and it will be noticed 

 that in hardly any instance was the head what, accord- 

 ing to the tables, it ought to have been. The nineteen- 

 year-old stag* was hardly bigger or heavier than a very- 

 large hind indeed, he weighed only 3 Ibs. more than 

 the yeld hind mentioned on a previous page. Two 

 other instances are known in which deer, proved by 



