14 CERVUS ELAPHTJS. 



erects his ears, and receives the sound from a great distance. 

 Before entering a coppice, or other half- covered retirement, he 

 stops to look round him on all sides, and scents the wind, to 

 discover if any ohject he near that might disturb him. In general 

 he is less affraid of men than of dogs ; and he is never suspicious, 

 or has recourse to the arts of concealment, hut in proportion to 

 the molestation which he has experienced. He eats slowly, and 

 has a choice in his aliments ; and, after his stomach is full, he lies 

 down, and ruminates at leisure, but with more difficulty than the 

 ox, on account of his longer neck. In winter and spring he dis- 

 penses with drink ; but, during the parching heats of summer, he 

 frequents the brooks, marshes, and fountains ; and, in autumn, he 

 searches everywhere for water with which to bathe and refresh 

 his body. On account of his fatness, he then swims more easily 

 than at any other time. He leaps still more nimbly than he 

 swims ; and, when pursued, can readily clear a hedge or pale six 

 feet high. His food varies according to the season ; for, in autumn, 

 he searches for the buds of green shrubs, the flowers of broom or 

 heath, the leaves of bramble, &c. ; during the snows of winter, he 

 feeds on the bark and moss of trees; in mild weather, he browses 

 in the corn fields; in early spring, he goes in quest of the catkins 

 of willows, trembling poplar, and hazel, the flowers and buds of 

 the cornel, &c. ; in summer, when he has great choice, he prefers 

 rye to all other grain, and the black-berry bearing alder (Rhamnus 

 frat/gula), to all other wood. He crops the yew, and swallows 

 the viper with impunity ; and, in the Hebrides, he has been ob- 

 served to eat submarine plants. 



The horns of animals appear in general to consist almost entirely 

 of indurated albumen ; but those of the Stag are composed prin- 

 cipally of gelatin and phosphate of lime. It is for the sake of the 

 gelatin which they afford by decoction in water, that they have 

 been received into the materia medica. The horns arc freed from 

 their external coat, and the internal white part is rasped down for 

 use. They are inodorous, insipid, flexible, of a pale yellowish 

 white colour; and contain 27 parts of gelatin in 100 parts. The 

 shavings of other bones are sometimes substituted in their 

 stead, especially those of the calf, and the sheep ; these, however, 



