CERVUS ELAPHUS. 13 



varieties are said to be found, which, in bulk, scarcely exceed a 

 dog of ordinary size. The horns seldom exceed three feet in length, 

 and the number of branches, vary according to the age of the animal. 

 They have nohorns till they are above a year old, and those do not 

 branch till the third year, after which the branches increase in num- 

 ber every year. The usual number of branches on the horns of a full 

 grown Stag, is six or seven ; but Baron Cuvier mentions one killed, 

 by the first King of Prussia, which had thirty-three on each horn. 

 In most cases the males only have horns ; and after their sixth 

 year, when they arrive at maturity, they shed them annually, in 

 the spring. Those horns are soon reproduced in a soft tender 

 state, extremely vascular, and covered with a velvetty skin, which 

 gradually disappears as they increase in size ; till at length, in the 

 course of about ten weeks, they become hard, compact", and bony. 

 The eyes of this species are large, and the pupil is elongated trans- 

 versely ; the muzzle is very broad ; the tongue is very soft, and 

 the ears are middle sized, and pointed. The female, or hind, is 

 gravid eight months, and generally brings forth one at a birth, in 

 April or May. 



The Stag is a native of every country of Europe, excepting 

 Lapland, and inhabits almost all the northern parts of America 

 and Asia. In many parts of Britain, where it formerly occured 

 in profusion, its numbers have been much reduced by the progress 

 of civilization, or it has been replaced by the fallow-deer, whose 

 venison is of a superior flavour, and whose dispositions are more 

 placid and tractable. The Red-Deer, however, may still be found 

 in the moors, bordering on Cornwall and Devonshire, in the New 

 Forest, Hampshire, in the neighbourhood of the lakes, about 

 Ullswater, in Cumberland, in various districts in the Highlands of 

 Scotland, and on the Kerry mountains in Ireland. 



This species is justly considered the most beautiful of the deer 

 kind. The elegance of his form, says the eloquent Buffon, the 

 lightness of his motions, the strength of his limbs, and the branch- 

 ing horns with which his head is decorated, conspire to give him a 

 high rank among quadrupeds, and to render him worthy of the 

 admiration of mankind. He has a fine eye, an acute sense of 

 smell, and an excellent ear. When listening, he raises his head, 



