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UTILITARIAN ZOOLOGY 



be given first place, at least from the English stand-point, and 

 though the glories of stag-hunting have faded so far as Britain is 

 concerned, innumerable trophies still attest the important place it 

 once held in our national life. Deer-stalking in the "deer forests " 

 of Scotland is excellent sport, but not comparable to hunting 

 the wild animal in the old-time fashion, which, in this country, 

 is now only possible on Exmoor. Regarding a third variety of 

 the sport once popular in Britain Lord Granville Gordon makes 

 the following very apposite remarks (in Sport in Europe): — " True 



we can still pursue him in what might be 

 described as a pickled state, with horns shorn 

 off, around the purlieus of Windsor, or in 

 one or two other places, but, pleasant though 

 the run may actually be, the ' sport ' cannot 

 stand close investigation, for sport consists 

 in the strategy and skill of man in pursuing 

 and capturing a wild animal. It loses all 

 its charm and all its poetry when the game 

 is first, as it were, tethered ". Wild Red 

 Deer are fortunately more numerous in other 

 parts of Europe, e.g. in Hungary, than in 

 Britain, but stalking and driving are in most 

 cases the chief methods employed. The 

 following remarks by Paul Caillard (in Tlie 

 Sports of the World) are of interest as 

 showing that stag -hunting is to this day 

 practised in France on a considerable scale: — " If hunting gener- 

 ally is known as the ' sport of kings ', then surely is stag-hunting 

 particularly associated with the memories of medireval courts, 

 and, although some might not perhaps expect it, modern France 

 preserves above all other lands the tradition and even the out- 

 ward forms of the ancient chassc. ... In many of our French 

 forests it would be as great a heresy to kill a deer otherwise 

 than before the hounds as ever it would on Exmoor, and many 

 visitors to our meets have expressed their pleasure at the survival 

 of such picturesque sport." 



Gnawing Mammals (Rodentia). — Coursing the Hare with 

 greyhounds is a very ancient form of amusement, which appears 

 to have been indulged in by the Assyrians (fig. 1266). \^^e next 

 hear of it in Greece, and many details are given by Arrian (born 



Fig. i?65. — Red-Deer Trophy 



