THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
deer can be improved quickly, as they respond better than most animals 
to fair treatment. A wild Scottish calf caught on Ben Wyvis was turned 
into Warnham Park many years ago, and when killed at eleven years 
of age, weighed 22 st., and carried a fourteen-point head 40 in. long 
and 43 in. wide. It was not the least likely that this deer was other 
than an average one, and would, if he had survived until his prime, on 
Wyvis, probably have had a body of 14 st. and a thin head of eight or 
ten small points. In England and Ireland wild stags shed their horns in 
April, and the next pair are complete and hard in August, generally about 
the 20th of that month. Park deer are often a month earlier, and High- 
land stags from a fortnight to a month later. Stags in good health usually 
cast their horns annually about the same date, and, if not disturbed, 
frequently in the same spot. In parks this occurs from March 6 to 
March 30 for adults, and a month to six weeks later in Scotland. 
For a day or two before horn-shedding stags seem dull, listless and 
uncomfortable. If carefully watched at this time the animal may be 
seen hanging his head and suddenly jerking it up as if to free himself i 
from the appendages. He may often, too, be seen shaking his head, and ij 
I imagine that the skin covering of the new horns presses against the sharp f 
edges of the old horn and causes him some pain, for the new growth often | 
makes considerable advance before the old is shed. When about to cast, 
any sudden movement will jerk off one antler, and sometimes both, but 
the second horn is usually shed within an hour or so of the first. At the j 
moment of release, when the horns clatter on the ground, the stag 
appears to be very frightened, and starts away at a gallop, shaking ij 
his head and springing into the air ; but after a few wild bounds he soon | i 
settles down, though frequently shaking his head to see if the horns are 
still there. 
Owing to the fact that they undergo no loss of strength and therefore 
get into condition quicker, “hummel” or hornless stags, or “knotts,” ' 
as they are called in the West of England, are frequently master stags, i 
and, in another degree, switch horns and poor -headed stags are often ! 
the heaviest beasts and the best fighters. Consequently all this “ trash ” : i 
should be rigidly excluded from a forest if the best headed deer are to 
get the hinds. Very often the best horned stags are either timid or have 
little desire to obtain hinds, so that it is necessary to make the road to ^ j 
success for them as easy as possible. It is a common sight in parks to | j 
see the very best stag standing apart under some tree, perhaps roaring | | 
38 ^ I: . 
