66 DEER-STALKING. 



files, one very rough, the other smooth, are the best 

 implements for the purpose. 



It is perfectly fair and legitimate to give the extreme 

 points of the horns a slight scrape so as to render 

 the tips white ; a piece of glass is the best thing to 

 use. This being done the horns look much better, 

 and make a greater show when mounted on wooden 

 shields and hung round the walls of a room. It is 

 also absolutely true to nature, as any one can see for 

 himself, if he will observe red deer after the stalking 

 season is over, and in December and later, all the stags 

 with good heads have the tips of their horns quite 

 white and burnished indeed, most October deer have 

 this, but those killed early in September, especially in 

 a late season, have not put on the finishing touches, 

 which they accomplish by incessant and violent rubbing 

 against the bunches of long rushes that grow so luxu- 

 riantly on the hills. The horns of deer killed with the 

 velvet partly on, may be made a good colour by rubbing 

 them with a handful of wet peat or by staining them 

 with " Stevens' Oak Stain." A fine pointed pen should 

 be used for writing the dates, &c., on the skull ; a broad 

 pointed one will cause the ink to run. 



