203 
STAG. 
she is more feeble and unfit f tit bunting than the 
male. When once they have conceived, they sepa- 
rate from the males, and then they both herd apart., 
The time of gestation continues between eight and 
nine months, and they generally produce but one 
at a time. Their usual season for bringing forth, 
is about the month of May, or the beginning of 
June, during which they take great care to hide 
their young in the most obscure thickets. Nor is 
this precaution without reason, since almost every 
creature is then a formidable enemy. The eagle, 
the falcon, the osprey, the wolf, the dog, and all 
the rapacious family of the cat kind, are in conti- 
nual employment to find out her retreat. But, 
what is more unnatural still, the stag himself is a 
professed enemy, and she is obliged to use all her 
arts to conceal her young from him, as from the 
most dangerous of her pursuers. At this season, 
therefore, the courage of the male seems transferred 
to the female ; she defends her young against her 
less formidable opponents by force ; and when 
pursued by the hunter, she even offers herself to 
mislead him from the principal objects of her con- 
cern. She dies before the hounds for half the day, 
and then returns to her young, whose life she has 
thus preserved at the hazard of her own. The 
calf, for so the young of this animal is called, 
never quits the dam during the whole summer ; and 
in winter, the hind, and all the males under a year 
old, keep together, and assemble in herds, which 
are more numerous in proportion as the season is 
more severe. In the spring they separate ; the 
hinds to bring forth, while none but the year old* 
remain together ; these animals^ are, however, in 
general, fond of herding and grazing in com- 
pany ; it is danger or necessity alone that separates 
them. 
The dangers they have to fear from other ani- 
