84 THE WONDERS OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 



The stac may be considered as one of those innocent and peaceable animals that seem destined to 

 embellish the forest and animate the solitudes of nature. The elegance of his form, the lightness of 

 his motions, the strength of his limbs, and the branching horns with which he is decorated, conspire 

 to give him a high rank among quadrupeds, and to render him worthy of the admiration of mankind. 

 It varies both in size and colour in different countries ; but in North America it occasionally arrives at 

 a larger size than on the old continent, with perhaps the exception of Siberia, where it is found of 

 o-io-antic magnitude. Stags, in general, cast or shed their horns sooner or later in the month of March, 

 in proportion to their ages. At the end of June they are full-grown, and the animal rubs them 

 strongly against the boughs of the trees, or any other convenient object, in order to free them from 

 the skin, which is now become useless, and by the beginning of August they assume the full strength 

 and consistence, which they retain throughout the remainder of the year. The hinds go with young 

 eio-ht months and a few days, and seldom produce more than one fawn, which they bring forth in 

 May or the beginning of June. In winter the stags and hinds of all ages keep together in flocks, 

 which are almost more numerous in proportion to the rigour of the season. They separate in spring ; 

 the hinds retire to bring forth, and during this period, the flocks consist only of knobbers, that is, the 

 fawns of about six months old, and young stags. In general the stags are inclined to associate, and 

 nothing but fear or necessity obliges them to disperse. The life of the stag is spent in alternate plenty 

 and want, vigour and debility, health and sickness, without having any change introduced into his con- 

 stitution by these opposite extremes. He lives as long as other animals which are not subjected to such 

 vicissitudes. As he grows five or six years, he lives seven times that number, or from thirty-five to 

 forty years. The reports which have been promulgated concerning the longevity of the stag merit 

 no credit. Virgil, for instance, in the following lines, gives the stag the enormous age of 2112 



Terbinis deciesque super exit in annos 

 Justa senescentum quos implet vita virorum 

 Hos nonies superat vivendo garrula cornix, 

 Et quater egveditur cornicis seeula cervus 

 Alipedum cervum ter vine-it cornus ; at ilium, 

 Multiplicat novies phoenix reparabilis ales ; 



which may be anglicised, — that the raven liveth nine times the age of man ; the stag liveth four 

 times the age of the raven ; the crow three times that of the stag ; and the phcenix nine times the age 

 of the crow; making the age of the phcenix to be 57,524. 



In England the stag is become less common than formerly ; its excessive viciousness during the 

 rutting season, and the badness of its flesh, induce most people to part with the species. In the 

 Highlands of Scotland stags are still found ranging over the vast hills of the north. Formerly the 

 chieftains used to hunt them with the magnificence of eastern monarchs, assembling four or five 

 thousand of their clan, who drove the deer into the toils, or to the stations in which the lairds had 

 placed themselves ; but as this pretence was frequently used to collect their vassals for rebellious 

 purposes, an act was passed prohibiting any assemblies of that nature. Stags are likewise met with 

 on the moors that border on Cornwall and Devonshire, and in Ireland on the mountains of Kerry, 

 where they add greatly to the magnificence of the romantic scenery of the lake of Killarney. The 

 stags of Ireland, during its uncultivated state, and while it remained an almost boundless tract of 

 forest, had an exact agreement, in habit, with those that range at present through the wilds of America. 

 They were less in body, but very fat, and their horns of a size far superior to those of Europe, but 

 in all respects similar in form. 



