34 British Deer and their Horns 
closely, do they “ hold ” the rut for more than a few days. If, for once in a way, you 
want to see them fight in real earnest, you have only to run after the herd about the middle 
of September, and keep stirring them up till they jostle one another between trees or in 
some corner of the park ; then all the deer about the same age will generally attack one 
another, and there is a high old row. But to do this more than once would be exceedingly 
unwise. 
The stag carrying the great head shown on page 26 was probably the veriest duffer 
of a warrior that ever adorned the park. I remember him well : he looked superb when 
THE HERD OF WHITE RED DEER, WELBECK, 1 896 
holding his head up, but in movement he seemed quite overbalanced by the weight of 
his horns. 
One season Mr. Charlie Lucas had all the big stags caught and their horns sawn off, 
under the belief that after that the big-headed fellow would of a surety command the 
harem. Nothing, however, could have happened more differently ; even four-year-old 
stags drove him off and defeated him. Five years ago a 30-stone stag with a fair fighting 
head was also in the Warnham herd—just the sort that an inexperienced critic would 
have picked out at once as the boss for that season,—but on one of the first fighting days 
a young, active stag fell upon him, drove him half-way round the park, and then spitted 
him up against the fence, where he was found dead the next morning. Quite the best 
stag as to both head and body, bred by Lord Ilchester at Melbury, was also killed in 1893 
by a much inferior beast. 
Deer are, in fact, very much like human beings : excessive feeding and lack of constant 
exercise produce in time the “ aldermanic ” stag, fitter for a feast than a fray. But it by 
no means follows that in all parks where deer are well fed corpulence is encouraged. 
