346 
UNGULATES. 
the hinds, being unwilling to leave them; the other pursues, and when he touches 
the fugitive with the points of his horns, the animal thus gored either bounds 
suddenly on one side, and then turns and faces him, or will dash off to the right or 
the left, and at once give up the contest. The conflict, however, generally continues 
for a considerable time, and nothing can be more entertaining than to witness, as I 
have often done, the varied success and address of the combatants. It is a sort 
of wild joust, in the presence of the dames who, as of old, bestow their favours 
on the most valiant. ... In solitary encounters, there being no hinds to take the 
alarm, the harts are so occupied and possessed with such fury that they may be 
occasionally ap¬ 
proached in a manner 
that it would be vain 
to attempt at any 
other time.” One 
instance has been 
recorded where the 
antlers of two stags 
fighting in this 
manner became so 
firmly interlocked 
that the victor was 
unable to disengage 
himself from his 
dead antagonist, and 
was thus held cap¬ 
tive until killed by 
a forester. After an 
interval of eight 
months and a few 
days from the pair¬ 
ing-season—that is 
to say, generally in 
the early part of 
red deer at a pool. June—the fawns are 
produced; there 
being but rarely more than one at a birth. The fawn is dropped in high heather, 
and is left concealed there during the day by the hind, who returns to visit it in 
the evening. Mr. Scrope states that the dam makes her offspring “ lie down by a 
pressure of her nose; and it will never stir or lift up its head the whole of the day, 
unless you come right upon it, as I have often done. It lies like a dog, with its 
nose to its tail. The hind, however, although she separates herself from the young 
fawn, does not lose sight of its welfare, but remains at a distance to windward, 
and goes to its succour in case of an attack of the wild cat or fox, or any other 
powerful vermin.” 
The old stags shed their antlers about February or March, according to the 
nature of the season, but those of the young bucks are retained for some time 
