CH. III.] DO DEER EAT THEIR SHED-HORNS? 179 
farmer, twelve or fourteen in number, (sometimes 
accompanied by the bull), at first busily engaged 
in searching for these, and afterwards each oc- 
cupied for a couple of hours in quietly mumbling 
her bone. Occasionally one would succeed, after 
some time, in reducing hers sufficiently to enable 
her to swallow it, when down it slipped, and she 
immediately set about looking for another, or, if 
she could not find one, endeavouring to filch that 
of a more fortunate neighbour. Bones were evi- 
dently the peculiar objects of their search, but, if 
bones ran short, they would make shift with 
lobster-shells, or even, as I remember seeing on 
one occasion, the sole of an old shoe. 
These cows had plenty of pasture, and were 
in good condition. Whether they really relished 
the bones for their flavour, or were merely actu- 
ated by an instinctive impulse, such as induces 
dogs to eat grass, or birds gravel, for the purpose 
of aiding digestion, I will not pretend to deter- 
mine: any way, whatever may have been the in- 
ducement, they evidently derived very consider- 
able gratification from the act of mumbling 
them. 
It has been supposed by some people, as a 
means of accounting for the mysterious disappear- 
N2 
