THE STAG, OR RED DEER. 



exceed forty years. The Irate of the horns is the criterion which ferves 

 to determine its age : thus, during the firft year, the Stag has no horns, 

 but only a fhort, rough, horny excrefcence, covered with a thin hairy (kin ; 

 the next year the horns are ltraight and without branches ; the third year 

 they have two antlers or branches ; the fourth year three, the fifth four, 

 and the fixth five : this number however is not uniformly to be depended on, 

 but is fubject to fome variation. At fix years old the antlers do not always- 

 increafe ; and although they may then amount to fix or feven on each horn, 

 yet the age of the animal is after that period calculated more from the fize of 

 the antlers and the thicknefs of the branch which fultains them, than from 

 their number. The texture of the horns, when full grown, is very firm and 

 folid, and theyare ufed for making knife-handles and other purpofes; but when 

 the horn is young, it is tender and exquifitelyfenfible: the animal at thefe times 

 quits his companions, and, feeking the m oft retired thickets and folitudes, 

 never ventures out to feed, except by night, for fear of the flies, which would 

 not fail to fettle on the foft horns, and keep the poor creature in continual 

 torture. The Stag Iheds and renews his horns every year, and this event 

 happens early in the lpring ; at thefe times it retires to pools of water, into 

 which the old horns drop, when they fall off, and this is the reafon they are fo 

 feldom found : the new horn does not immediately make its appearance, but, 

 in a Ihort time after the old one has fallen off, its place is occupied by a foft 

 tumour full of blood, and covered with a downy fubftance like velvet. This 

 increafes daily, and at length Ihoots out the antlers on each fide, and a few 

 days complete the whole head. The young horns are covered with a fort of 

 bark, which is foft like velvet : it is in faci a continuation of the covering of 

 the fkull, and is furnifhed with blood- velTels, which nourilh the increafing 

 horns : it is the prelfure of thefe blood- vellels that gives thofe furrows and 

 inequalities to the horns, which they keep ever after. As foon as the horns 

 have acquired their full growth, this covering and blood- vefiels dry up, and 

 begin to fall off ; which operation the animal afiifts, by rubbing its antlers 

 againft the trees. The fize and beauty of the horns mark the ftrength and 

 vigour of the animal, and thofe are always the largeft which grow on Stags 



