THE RUMINANT ORDER. 
3 . 01 ' 
In the early part of September a great change takes place in 
the Stag’s characteristics and ways of life, for the breeding season 
has arrived. Then he ranges the wood, uttering a deep guttural 
bellowing, seeking the females, and bidding defiance to his own 
i sex. Excited, and almost furious, he rushes hither and thither 
with a wild air, tearing up the ground impatiently with his feet, 
dashing his head against the bushes and with violence scattering 
the foliage. How he appears to have lost all sense of danger, 
for, contrary to his usual habits, if any suspicious object appears, 
he runs at it. At length the Stag assembles round him several 
Hinds and forms a seraglio, of which he becomes exclusive master, 
watching over its members with anxious jealousy. If a rival 
happen to appear, a combat a outrance immediately takes place. 
The two adversaries rush impetuously one against the other ; 
on their feet and knees they fight ; long and obstinate are such 
battles ; wounds are given and received, and blows are parried 
with consummate skill. Sometimes their antlers get entangled 
to that extent that they are unable to separate. Hastened 
together, the two heroes strive in vain to disentangle themselves, 
and some of these hostile couples, thus closely riveted together, 
ultimately perish of famine. When the duel is ended, by the 
death or flight of one of the champions, the conqueror remains 
master of the seraglio, until a competitor drives him away and 
assumes possession of all his privileges. 
After two or three weeks of this life of excitement and fatigue, 
additionally aggravated by scantiness of food and the want of 
sleep, the Stag is thoroughly enfeebled. He then retires into soli- 
tude, to restore his exhausted strength. But the season is now so 
far advanced, that it is not before spring that he thoroughly 
recovers his former condition. 
The Hind goes eight months with young. In May she brings 
forth, in a thicket, one Fawn, very rarely two, the body of which 
is covered with white spots on a yellow ground. At six months 
old the young change their appearance, and the rudiments of the 
antlers appear. In about a year, the dags having shot out, the 
knobber becomes a brock. At the commencement of the third 
year the second crop of horns begin to rise, with indications 
of branching, or, in terms of venery, it begins to show a head . 
The Stag produces every year a new head of horns, and its age is 
