126 A DESCRIPTION OF 
larger, as they are yearly shed and renewed, till the stag 
has completed his fifth year, when they have become very 
large and branching, and they remain the same size during 
the remainder of the Stag's life. The Stag is the tallest of 
the deer kind, and is called a Hart after he has com- 
pleted his fifth year; the female, called the Hind, is without 
horns. Every year, in the month of April, when the Stag 
has lost his horns, he appears conscious of his temporary 
weakness, and hides himself till his new ones have grown 
;md are hardened. This is generally in about ten weeks, 
even when the Stag is lull grown, and his horns weigh be- 
tween twenty and thirty pounds. Little need be said of the 
pleasure taken in hunting the Stag, the Hart, and the Roe- 
buck, it being a matter well known in this country, and in 
all parts of Europe. The following fact, recorded in history, 
will serve to show that the Stag is possessed of an extra- 
ordinary share of courage, when his personal safety is con- 
cerned : In tlie reign of George the Second, William, 
Duke of Cumberland, caused a tiger and a Stag to be 
enclosed in the same area; and the Stag made so bold a 
defence, that the tiger was at length obliged to give up. 
The flesh of the Stag is accounted excellent food, and his 
horns are useful to cutlers; even their shavings are used to 
make ammonia, so much esteemed in physic, under the 
name of hartshorn. The swiftness of the Stag has become 
proverbial, and the diversion of hunting this creature has, 
for ages, been looked upon as a royal amusement. In the 
times of William Rufus and Henry the First, it was less 
criminal to destroy one of the human species than a full- 
grown Stag. This animal, when fatigued in the chase, 
often throws himself in a pond of water, or crosses a river; 
and, when caught, he sheds tears like a child. 
To the which place a poor sequestered Stag, 
That from the hunter's aim had ta'en a hurt, 
Did come to languish ; and indeed, my lord, 
The wretched animal heaved forth such groans 
