THE EARLIEST PICTURE IN THE WORLD 21 



" rutting season, when stags roar, the stag would be 

 " tucked up in the belly and have a tuft of hair hanging 

 " under the middle of it. He and the stag in front are 

 " moving in the real action (not the conventional action 

 " Rosa Bonheur and Landseer drew, but what the ancient 

 " Egyptians drew sometimes) of a slow, easy canter. . . . 

 " Now as to the middle stag's horns. I should give 

 " him, bearing in mind he is the small sentry stag, brow, 

 " tray, and three on top — a ten-pointer, the thin points 

 " showing in thft original drawing indicating that he had 

 " thin horns — in fact, a three-year old. 



" In a Scotch forest a ten-pointer is a comparatively old 

 " stag, but at Warnham and my place, where the feeding 

 " is good (and in my case there is hand feeding all the 

 " year round), a spike stag gets six points and can almost 

 " be a royal the next year. 



" All this shows that the deer at the time this drawing 

 " was made must have had very good feeding and come 

 " to maturity quickly, like modern park deer. The big 

 " stag would never have allowed a ten-pointer in his herd 

 " if the latter had been an old stag. 



" As to the action of the leading hind. I think she is 

 " a hind-calf by her legs, and is jumping with all four 

 " legs together, the way young deer do when playing, and, 

 " being young, is paying no attention to the danger 

 " behind, but is full of life, like a horse playing about 

 " when he is fresh. One often sees the calves of a herd 

 " playing like this if the herd is moving along steadily. . . . 



" From the position of the hind legs of the little calf 

 " I judge that she is jumping with all four legs together 

 " (the jump from which the expression 'buck jumping' 

 " comes) ; her tail would be curled up tight over her back 

 " like a pug dog carries it, only without the curl, and her 

 " ears pricked forward. The piece of horn broken ofif 

 " would show the rest of the hinds and calves, led 

 " by an old ' yeld ' {i.e., barren) hind, who would be lead- 

 " ing the herd up wind with her nose and ears forward to 

 " ' get the wind ' of any danger ahead. 



" The day is a hot one in the middle of August, shown 

 " by the big stag blowing and his being with the hinds. 



