Chap. SO.] STAGS. 299 



stances. Tteophrastus informs us, that lizards'"' also cast their 

 skins like the serpent, and, instantly devour them, thus de- 

 priving us of a powerful remedy for epilepsy ; he says, too, 

 that the bite of the lizard is fatal in Greece, but harmless in 

 Italy." 



cniP. 50. (32.) — STAGS. 



Stags, although the most mUd of all animals, havestUl their 

 own feelings of malignancy;'"' -when hard pressed by the 

 hounds, of their O'wn accord they fly for refiige to man ; and 

 when the females bring forth, they are less anxious to avoid 

 the paths which bear traces of human footsteps, than solitary 

 spots which ofler a retreat to wild beasts.''^ They become 

 pregnant after the rising of the constellation Arcturus;" they 

 bring forth after a gestation of eight months, and sometimes 

 produce two young ones. They separate after conception, btit 

 the males, upon being thus abandoned, becpme maddened with 

 the fury of their passion ; they dig up the earth, and their 

 muzzles become quite black, until they have been washed by 

 the rain." The females, before they bring forth, purge them- 

 selves by means of a certain herb, which is called seselis, by 

 the use of which parturition is rendered more easy. After de- 

 livery, they take a mixture of the two plants called seselis" and 

 aros," and then return to the fawn ; they seem desirous, for 



*" The gecko, according to Littrfe. 



*i This IB incorrect ; the bite of this animal, wherever foimd, is never 

 fatal.— B. 



*2 This refers to what will be found stated in this Chapter, that stags 

 conceal their horhs, when they fall off, that they may not be used in medi- 

 cine. — B. 



*' This is mentioned by Aristotle, Plutarch, and ^lian, but it must be 

 considered as very doubtful. — B. 



" See B. xviii. o. 74. 



*' It seems that Pliny here attributes the blackening of the mouths of 

 the stags to their, turning up^the earth with their muzzles ; Aristotle, how- 

 ever, refers it to a constitutional cause, arising from their violent sexual 

 excitement ; Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 29. — B. 



^6 Or seseli, proba^ hart-wort. See B. xx. c. 87, and B. xxv. c. 52. 



*■' "We learn ftom Hardouin, that there has been much discussion re- 

 specting the plants or other substances which the female is supposed to eat 

 after parturition. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 6, asserts that it eats 

 the chorion, the membrane in which the fcetus has been enveloped, and 

 afterwards the herb seselis. To make the account of Pliny agree with 

 that of Aristotle, some of the commentators have even supposed, that 



