STAG. 279 



garded as a terrier among stags. His colour is 

 brown, his body squat, and his legs short ; and 

 what convinces me that the size and stature of 

 stags in general depend on the quantity and qua- 

 lity of their food, is, that having reared one at 

 my house, and fed him very plentifully for four 

 years, he was much taller, thicker, and plumper 

 at that age than the oldest stags in my woods, 

 which are, however, of a very good size. 



The Stag appears to have a fine eye, an 

 acute smell, and an excellent ear. When listen- 

 ing, he raises his head, erects his ears, and hears 

 from a great distance. When going into a cop- 

 pice or other half covered place, he stops to look 

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

 discover if any object be near that might dis- 

 turb him. He is a simple, yet a curious and 

 crafty animal. Wlien hissed or called to from a 

 distance, he stops short, and looks steadfastly, 

 and with a kind of admiration, at carriages, cattle, 

 or men ; and if they have neither arms nor dogs, 

 he moves on unconcernedly, and without flying*. 

 He appears to listen with great tranquillity and 

 delight to the shepherd s pipe% and the hunters 

 sometimes employ this artifice to encourage and 

 deceive him. In general he is less afraid of men 



In Playford's Introduction to Music, is the following passage: 

 " Myself, as I travelled some years since near Royston, met a herd 

 of Stags, about twenty^ on the road, following a bag-pipe and vio- 

 lin ; which, while the music played, they went forward, when it 

 ceased, they all stood still 5 and in this manner they were brought 

 out of Yorkshire to Hampton-court," 



