Chap. 50.] 
STAGS. 
299 
stances. Theophrastos informs us, that lizards'*^ also cast their 
skins like the serpent, and instantly devour them, thus de- 
priving us of a powerful remedy for epilepsy ; he says, too, 
that the bite of the lizard is fatal in Greece, but harmless in 
Italy.^i 
CHAP. 50. (32.) — STAGS. 
Stags, although the most mild of all animals, have still their 
own feelings of malignancy when hard pressed by the 
hounds, of their own accord they fly for refuge to man ; and 
when the females bring forth, they are less anxious to avoid 
the paths which bear traces of human footsteps, than solitary 
spots which offer a retreat to wild beasts.^^ They become 
pregnant after the rising of the constellation Arcturus;** they 
bring forth after a gestation of eight months, and sometimes 
produce two young ones. They separate after conception, but 
the males, upon being thus abandoned, become maddened with 
the fury of their passion ; they dig up the earth, and their 
muzzles become quite black, until they have been washed by 
the rain.*^ The females, before they bring forth, purge them- 
selves by means of a certain herb, which is called seselis, by 
the use of which parturition is rendered more easy. After de- 
livery, they take a mixture of the two plants called seselis and 
aros,*"^ and then return to the fawn ; they seem desirous, for 
The gecko, according to Littre. 
^1 This is incorrect ; the bite of this animal, wherever found, is never 
fatal.— B. 
^2 This refers to what will be found stated in this Chapter, that stags 
conceal their horns, when they fall off, that they may not be used in medi- 
cine. — B. 
^3 This is mentioned by Ai-istotle, Plutarch, and ^lian, but it must be 
considered as very doubtful. — B. 
See B, xviii. c. 74. 
^5 It seems that Pliny here attributes the blackening of the mouths of 
the stags to their turning up the earth with their muzzles : Aristotle, how- 
ever, refers it to a constitutional cause, arising from their violent sexual 
excitement; Hist. Anim. B. vi. c. 29. — B. 
Or seseli, probably hart-wort. See B. xx. c. 87, and K. xxv. c. 52. 
^'^ We learn from Hardouin, that there has been much discussion re- 
specting the plants or other substances which the female is supposed to eat 
after parturition. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 6, asserts that it eats 
the chorion, the membrane in which the foetus has been enveloped, and 
afterwards the herb seselis. To make the account of Pliny agree with 
that of Aiistotle, some of the commentators have even supposed, that 
