jo Elaphine Group 



relatives, they exhibit in their relatively small dimensions the character- 

 istic of an island race, retaining, nevertheless, amid the sterile grandeur of 

 their mountain home an elegance and dignity of appearance unsurpassed 

 by any of their congeners. The hinds breed in their third year and calve 

 when three years old, producing, with rare exceptions, but one at a birth, 

 and remaining fertile, under favourable conditions, so long as they live. 

 The fawn is dropped in early summer on the heather, wherein for some 

 davs it will lie closelv concealed till able to run with its mother, whom it 

 will accompany thereafter, if a male, for a vear, and if a female, for two 

 years. The sexes occur at birth in nearly equal proportions, but probably 

 not more than half those born survive as yearlings, and the mortality of 

 males seems to exceed that of females from an early age. Hill stags attain 

 maturity at twelve years old, and appear to decline, as a rule, some five or 

 six years after, but their maturity is sometimes prolonged, for a Jura stag, 

 which had reached its prime when first observed, was still in best condition 

 when killed twelve years later. The calibre of a stag's head, like the 

 condition of its body, has its periods of advance, maturity, and decline, 

 which vary with individuals and cannot be precisely determined ; but, 

 excepting disease or accident, the same style of head will throughout life 

 infallibly distinguish the same stag. A Royal stag in Cromarty carried a 

 twelve-point head for thirteen seasons, and put out a thirteenth point in 

 his fourteenth season, though his antlers then appeared to be losing weight. 

 Old stags lose their front teeth, fall off in condition, and deteriorate gener- 

 ally, and the extreme term of their natural life may be placed at thirty 

 vears. Hinds mature earlier, and are probably, on an average, longer lived 

 than stags. A Jura hind, which was full grown, with a big fawn, when 

 first observed, retained all her teeth and was still fertile twenty-one years 

 later, when accidentally killed, having reared twenty fawns during the 

 period of observation. With both sexes, and at all ages, the chief cause of 

 death is parasitic disease — lung-worms, intestinal worms, and liver-flukes, 

 the first named being by far the most destructive, and probably responsible 

 for great periodical mortality among fawns. Wet seasons make the highest 

 death-rate, and spring is the deadly time. 



Stags shed their antlers in spring (March to May), earlier or later 

 according to age and condition, and attain their prime for the year in 

 autumn (September), shortly after the new antlers are hard and clean, and 



