Sierra Moréna 155 
Lynx, oR Garo CERVAL 
This animal breeds in April and May, and the number of 
young is generally two. If captured, the majority of the young 
lynxes die at the period when they change from a milk diet to 
solid food, and one may imagine that the same thing happens in 
the case of the wild lynxes, since otherwise it is difficult to explain 
why an animal, whose only enemy is mankind, should remain so 
scarce. Their food consists of partridges, rabbits, and other small 
game. 
Rep DEER 
With the red deer of these mountains, as elsewhere in Spain, 
the rut (celo) depends upon the autumn, which season may be 
earlier or later; but the celo always takes place between mid- 
September and mid-October. The calves are born at end of May 
or early in June, and suckled by their mothers till the following 
autumn. 
The casting of the horns, together with the change of hair, 
varies in date, depending on the state of health in each individual. 
It generally occurs in May, but in very robust animals we have 
seen cases in April, and in the barétos, or stags of one year, in 
March. The development of the new horn is complete by the 
end of July, and in August occurs the shedding of the velvet. 
The horn at first is of a white bone-colour, but gradually darkens, 
the final colour depending on the nature of the bush frequented, 
the blackest being found in those stags which inhabit the gum- 
cistus (jarales). 
Although it is currently believed among country folk that the 
age of a stag can be determined by the number of his points, 
this is incorrect, the horn development depending solely on the 
robustness of the animal. It frequently happens that a stag 
carries fewer, points than he did the year before. 
When the hinds are about to bring forth, they isolate them- 
selves, seeking spots where the brushwood is less dense, and 
leaving \the calf concealed in some bush. The habits of a hind 
when giving her offspring its first lessons in the arts of conceal- 
ment and caution are interesting to watch. Shortly after day- 
break the mother suddenly performs a series of wild, convulsive 
