196 A YEAR OF SPORT AND NATURAL HISTORY. 



young, but as summer days lengthen and ferns begin to open into 



glossy fronds, it may be readily torn if caught in a thorn branch 



or stout oak twig. From such mishaps the stag suffers much 



pain, and occasionally the perfect growth of brow, bay and tray is 



marred thereby. All this time stags, as if conscious that they 



have neither weapons for defence nor full majesty wherewith to 



impress the opposite sex with a sense of their power, keep 



away from the company of hinds, hiding in thickets by day and 



feeding alone at night. When the bracken has lost all traces of 



down, and its stalks, hard and polished, are turning a tawny tint, 



the stag's antlers, hardened into bone, begin to burst their 



"velvet." It maybe seen then hanging in mossy shreds from 



every tine. To get rid of this disfigurement the stag uses what 



is known as a " fraying stock." It may be the trunk of a gnarled 



oak, from which a stag will strip the tough rind as he rubs his 



antlers against it and tramples the ground round and round ; or it 



may be a sapling, which he will twist into all manner of strange 



shapes in his endeavour to free himself of the velvet and point the 



tines for combat. Now, as July draws to a close, is the season for 



fraying, and one may at times hear the antlered monarchs at work 



in the deepest recesses of a leafy valley with sounds such as 



single-stick players make when their feet beat time to the tapping 



of tough ash wands, and the swift play has made them scant of 



breath. At night the deer wander out to feed in cornfields or 



among turnips, or to strip apples from orchards. This is the 



harbourer's opportunity for learning all about their habits, which 



may serve him in slotting them to their lairs when the hunting 



days come round. Without a skilled harbourer, who can tell 



almost to a yard where the heavy harts are lying when wanted, 



