THE RED DEER'S LIFE 33 



The breeding stags at first roar only occasionally, 

 but as time elapses the discordant ' belling ' of the 

 lovesick brutes becomes more and more persistent, 

 especially on cold, clear nights. The strength of a 

 stag can be surmised from the peculiar volume of his 

 bellowing. The deeper and more raucous the sound 

 produced, the more powerful is the stag likely to be. 

 When the master stags are spent, they give place to 

 some of their younger rivals. When the rutting 

 duties cease, the winter coat begins to form. The 

 antlers are sometimes shed in February. A Highland 

 stag has been known to drop his horns in December, 

 but such an event is rare. The Martindale deer 

 seldom cast their antlers until the arrival of April, 

 and some immature animals carry them until May. 

 Hinds cast their winter hair from the month of May 

 onwards, but an animal which happens to be in poor 

 condition not rarely carries the old coat until the 

 month of August. On July 9, 1896, I saw four hinds 

 in Bannerdale, which had lost all the light pelage of 

 winter. Another hind was nearly clean of the grey 

 hair, but the sixth still retained the drab hair of winter 

 almost unchanged. Hinds do not breed annually, 

 as a rule, but there is no hard and fast law as to this 

 among our Lakeland deer. Of course, emparked deer 

 may act very differently from their wild brethren ; for 



