The STAG, or RED DEER.*

 

            THE stag is one of those innocent, gentle, and peaceable animals, which seem to be destined to embellish and animate the solitudes of the forest, and to occupy, at a distance from man, the tranquil retreats of those gardens of nature.  The elegance and lightness of his [74] figure, the commodiousness of his stature, the flexibility and nervousness of his limbs, his grandeur, strength, and swiftness, and his head, which is rather adorned than armed with living branches, that, like the leaves of trees, are annually renewed, sufficiently distinguish him from the other inhabitants of the wood.  As he is also the noblest of these animals, he ministers to the pleasure, and has occupied the leisure, of the greatest heroes.  The exercise of the chace [sic] should always succeed, or rather precede, the fatigues of war.  To know the management of horses and arms, are talents common to the warrior and the hunter.  To be accustomed to fatigue, address, dexterity, and quickness of movement, so necessary for the support of courage, are qualities acquired in the chace, and extremely useful in battle.  Hunting is a most delightful school of a necessary art.  It is the only amusement which entirely divests us of care, the only recreation that is not accompanied with effeminacy, and gives vivacity and pleasure, without languor or disgust.

 

            How can men, who, from their situation in life, are perpetually harrassed [sic] with company, be better employed than in hunting?  Always surrounded with a multitude, teased with the importunity of their demands, obliged to give their attention to affairs which are foreign to them, agitated by the solicitations of men of high rank, and constrained and fettered in proportion to [75] their elevation, great men would feel only the weight of their own grandeur, and exist only for others, if they did not occasionally abstract themselves from a croud [sic] of parasites and flatterers.  To preserve self-enjoyment, to recal [sic] personal attachments, and receive private friendship, sentiments a thousand times more precious and interesting than all the ideas of grandeur, retirement from the tumult and business of the world is sometimes necessary; and what retirement can be more various and animated than the chace? what exercise more useful to the body?  what amusement more agreeable to the mind?

 

            Perpetual action, or intercourse with man, is equally painful as perpetual thinking.  Nature never intended man for the contemplation of abstract subject.  To be occupied, without relaxation, in difficult studies, to lead a sedentary life, and to make the closet the centre of our existence, is equally unnatural as to pass our days in tumult and agitation, continually drawn along by the movements of other men, and obliged to keep a jealous and constrained watch over our own conduct, looks, and gestures.  Whatever ideas we may conceive of the dignity of human nature, it is apparent, that public exhibition is not existence, and that we are less fitted for thinking than for action, for reasoning than enjoyment.  True pleasure consists in the unrestrained use of ourselves.  Our best gifts are those we receive from Nature.  She presents us [76] with the useful and inexhaustible enjoyments which arise from the air, the earth, the fields, and the forests.  Hence a taste for hunting, fishing, gardening, and agriculture, is natural to all men:  And, in societies less complicated than ours, there are only two ranks, both of them connected with this mode of life; the Nobles, whose business is arms and hunting; and the Vulgar, who are occupied in cultivating the earth.

 

            In polished societies, where every thing is improved and brought nearer perfection, to render hunting more delightful and sprightly, to ennoble this most beneficial and respectable of all exercises, it has been formed into an art.  The chace of the stag requires a species of knowledge, which can only be learned by experience:  It implies a royal assemblage of men, horses, and dogs, all so trained, practised, and disciplined, that their movements, their researches, and their skill, must concur in producing one common end.  The huntsman should know the age and the sex of the animal; he should be able to distinguish with precision, whether the stag he has harboured* with his hound be a knobber,+ a young stag,3 in his sixth or seventh year, or [77] an old stag.*  The chief marks which convey this intelligence is derived from the foot,+ and the excrement.  The foot of the stag is better formed than that of the hind, or female.  Her leg3 is more gross and nearer the heel.  The impressions of his feet are rounder, and farther removed from each other.  He moves more regularly, and brings the hind foot into the impression made by the fore foot.  But the distance between the steps of the hind are shorter, and her hind feet strike not so regularly the track of the fore feet.  As soon as the stag acquires his fourth horns, he is easily distinguished; but, to know the foot of a young stag from that of a hind, requires repeated experience.  Stags of six, seven, &c. years, are still more easily known; for their fore foot is much larger than the hind foot; the older they are, the sides of their foot; the older they are, the sides of their feet are the more worn;4 the distance of their steps are more regular than those of young stags; they always place their hind foot exactly in the track of the fore foot, excepting, when they shed their horns, the old [78] stags misplace,* at this season, nearly as often as the young ones; but in this they are more regular than the hind or young stag, placing the hind foot always at the side of the fore foot, and never beyond or within it.

 

            When the huntsman, from the dryness of the season, or other circumstances, cannot judge by the foot, he is obliged to trace the animal backwards, and endeavour to find his dung.  This mark requires, perhaps, greater experience than the knowledge of the foot; but without it, the huntsman would be unable to give a proper report to the company.  After the report of the huntsman, and the dogs re led to the refuge of the stag, he ought to encourage his hound, and make him rest upon the track of the stag till the animal be unharboured.  Instantly the alarm is given to uncouple the dogs, which ought to be enlivened by the voice and the horn of the huntsman.  He should also diligently observe the foot of the stag, in order to discover whether the animal has started, and substituted another in his place.  But it is then the business of the hunters to separate also, and to recall the dogs which have gone astray after false game.  The huntsman should always accompany his dogs, and encourage, without pressing them too hard.  He should assist them in detecting all the arts of escape used by the stag; for this animal has remarkable [79] address in deceiving the dogs.  With this view, he often returns twice or thrice upon his former steps; he endeavours to raise hinds or younger stags to accompany him, and draw off the dogs from the object of their pursuit:  He then flies with redoubled speed, or springs off at side, lies down on his belly, and conceals himself.  In this case, when the dogs have lost his foot, the huntsmen, by going backwards and forwards, assist them in recoving it.  But, if they cannot find it, they suppose that he is resting within the circuit they have made, and go in quest of him.  But, if they are still unable to discover him, there is no other method left, but, from viewing the country, to conjecture where he may have taken refuge, and repair to the place.  As soon as they have recovered his foot, and put the dogs upon the track, they pursue with more advantage, because they perceive that the stag is fatigued.  Their ardour augments in proportion to his feebleness; and their scent becomes more distinct as the animal grows warm.  Hence they redouble their cries and their speed; and, though the stag practices still more arts of escape than formerly, as his swiftness is diminished, his arts and doublings become gradually less effectual.  He has now no other resource but to fly from the earth which he treads, and get into the waters, in order to cut off the scent from the dogs.  The huntsmen go round these waters, and again put the dogs on the track of his foot.  The stag, af- [80] ter taking to the water, is incapable of running far, and is soon at bay.*  But he still attempts to defend his life, and often wounds the dogs, and even the huntsmen when too forward, by blows with his hors, till one of them cuts his hams to make him fall, and then puts an end to his life by a blow of a hanger.  They now celebrate the death of the stag by a flourish of their horns; the dogs are allowed to trample upon him, and at last partake richly of the victory by devouring his flesh.

 

            Every season is not equally proper for hunting the stag with hounds.  In spring, when the leaves begin to unfold and to adorn the forests, when the earth is covered with fresh herbage and flowers, their perfumes diminish the sensation of the dogs; and, as the stag is then in his greatest vigour, it is extremely difficult for them to come up with him. It is likewise a settled point among hunters, that, when the hinds are about to bring forth, the chace is most difficult, and that, at this period, the dogs often quit a fatigued stag, and pursue any hind which bounds before them.  In the same manner, in the beginning of autumn, when the rutting season commences, the hounds hunt without ardour:  The strong odour of love renders, perhaps, the scent more uninteresting; and, perhaps, at this season, the odour of all stags is nearly the same.  During the winter [81] snows, it is also improper to hunt the stag; because the hounds have no acuteness of scent, and seem to pursue the foot rather by the eye than the nose.  As, in this season, the stags find not sufficient nourishment in their retreats, they issue forth into the more open parts of the country, and even into the sown fields.  They assemble in flocks in the month of December, and, when the frosts are severe, they seek shelter on the sea-coasts, or in covered places, where they lock themselves fast together, and acquire warmth by mutual respiration.  When the rigours of winter decline, they frequent the borders of the forest, and make depredations on the rising wheat.  In spring, they shed their horns, which fall off spontaneously, or by rubbing them gently against the branches of trees.  It is seldom that both horns fall off at the same time, the one generally preceding the other a day or two.  The old stags cast their horns first, which happens about the end of February or beginning of March.  An aged stag, or one in his seventh year or upwards, does not cast his horns before the middle of March; a stag of six years sheds his horns in April; young stags, or those from three to five years old, shed their horns in the beginning and those which are in their second year, not till the middle or end of May.  But, in all this there is much variety; for old stags sometimes cast their horns sooner than those which are younger.  Besides, the shedding of the horns is ad- [82] vanced by a mild, and retarded by a severe and long winter. 

 

            As soon as the stags cast their horns, they separate from each other, the young ones only keeping together. They no longer haunt the deepest recesses of the forest, but advance in to the cultivated country, and remain among brushwood during the summer, till their horns are renewed.  In this season, they walk with their heads low to prevent their horns from rubbing against the branches; for they continue to have sensibility till they acquire their full growth.  The horns of the oldest stags are not half completed in the middle of May, and acquire their full length and hardness before the end of July.  Those of the younger stags are proportionally later both in shedding and being renewed.  But, as soon as they have acquired their full dimensions and solidity, the stags rub them against the trees, in order to clear them of a skin with which they are covered: And, as they continue this friction for several days successively, it is said,* that the horns retain the colour peculiar to the juices of the trees against which they have been rubbed; that they become red when rubbed against beeches and birches, brown against oaks, and black against elms and trembling poplars.  It is likewise said, that the horns of young stags, which are smoother, take not so deep a tincture from the trees as those of [83] old stags, which are rougher, and closer covered with little prominences; because it is those prominence which retain the coloured juices of the trees.  But I cannot believe that this is the true cause; for I have kept tamed stags in an inclosure where there was not a single tree, and yet their horns were coloured in the same manner as in those which inhabit the forests.

 

            Soon after the stags have polished their horns, they begin to feel the impressions of love.  Towards the end of August or beginning of September, they leave the coppice, return to the forests, and search for the hinds.  They cry with a loud voice; their neck and throat swell; they become perfectly restless, and traverse, in open day, the fields and fallow grounds; they strike their horns against trees and hedges; in a word, they seem to be transported with fury, and run from country to country till they find the hinds or females, whom they pursue and compel into compliance; for the female at first avoids and flies from the male, and never submits to his embraces till she be fatigued with the pursuit.  The old hinds likewise come in season before the younger ones.  When two stags approach the same hind, they must fight before they enjoy. If nearly equal in strength, they threaten, paw the ground, set up terrible cries, and attack each other with such fury, that they often inflict mortal wounds with the strokes of their horns.  The combat never terminates but in the defeat or [84] flight of one of the rivals.  The conqueror loses not a moment in enjoying his victory, unless another rival approaches, whom he is again obliged to attack and repel.  The oldest stags are always masters of the field; because they are stronger and more furious than the young ones, who must wait patiently till their superiors tire, and quit their mistresses.  Sometimes, however, the young stags accomplish their purposes when the old ones are fighting, and, after a hasty gratification, fly off.  The hinds prefer the old stags, not because they are most courageous, but because they are much more ardent.  They are likewise more inconstant, having often several females at a time; and, when a stag has but one hind, his attachment to her does not continue above a few days:  He then leaves her, goes in quest of another, with whom he remains a still shorter time; and, in this manner, passes from one to another, till he is perfectly exhausted.

 

            This ardour of love lasts only three weeks, during which the stags take very little food, and neither sleep nor rest.  Night and day, they are either walking, running, fighting, or enjoying the hinds.  Hence, at the end of the rutting season, they are so meagre and exhausted, that they recover not their strength for a considerable time.  They generally retire to the borders of the forests, feed upon the cultivated fields, where they find plenty of nourishment, and remain there till their strength is re-established.  The [85] rutting season of old stags commences about the beginning, and ends about the 20th day of September.  In those of six or seven years old, it begins about the 10 of September, and concludes in the beginning of October.  In young stags, or those in their third, fourth, or fifth year, it begins about the 20th of September, and terminates about the 15th of October; and, at the end of October, the rutting is all over, excepting among the prickets or those which have entered into their second year; because they, like the young hinds, are the latest of coming into season.  Hence, at the beginning of November, the season of love is entirely finished; and the stags, during this period of weakness and lassitude, are easily hunted down.  In seasons when acorns and other nuts are plentiful, the stags soon recover their strength, and a second rutting frequently happens at the end of October; but it is of much shorter duration than the first.

 

            In climates warmer than that of France, the rutting time, like the seasons, is more forward.  Aristotle informs us,* that in Greece, it commences in the beginning of August, and terminates about the end of September.  The hinds go with young eight months and some days, and seldom produce more than one fawn.  They bring forth in May or the beginning of June, and so anxiously conceal their fawns, that they often expose themselves to be chaced, with a [86] view to draw off the dogs, and afterwards return to take care of their young.  All hinds are not fertile; for some of them never conceive.  These barren hinds are grosser and fatter than those which are prolific, and also come soonest in season.  Some hinds are said to have horns like the stag, which is not altogether improbable.  The young are not called fawns or calves after the sixth month:  The knobs of their horns then begin to appear, and they take the name of knobbers till their horns lengthen into spears, and then they are called brocks or staggards.  During the first season, they never leave their mothers.  In winter, the stags and hinds, of all ages, keep together in flocks, which are always more numerous in proportion to the rigour of the season.  They separate in spring:  The hinds retire to bring forth; and, during this period, the flocks consist only of knobbers and young stags.  In general, the stags are inclined to associate, and nothing but fear or necessity obliges them to disperse.  The stag is capable of generating at the age of eighteen months:  Those brought forth during the spring of the preceding year, cover the hinds in autumn; and it is presumeable [sic] that these embraces are prolific.  The following circumstances, however, may render this opinion doubtful: The stags have not then acquired above a half or two thirds of their growth, which is not completed till the eighth year of their age; and their horns continue to increase [87] during the same period.  But it ought to be remarked, that the fawn soon gathers strength; that, during the first, and even the second year, his growth is very quick; and that he has already a redundance of nourishment, because his horns are considerably long, which is the most certain mark of ability to impregnate.  It is allowed, that animals, in general, are not capable of procreating till they have nearly acquired their full growth.  But those which have fixed seasons for rutting or spawning, seem not to observe this law.  Fishes spawn and are prolific before they have attained a fourth, or even an eighth part of their growth; and, among quadrupeds, those which, like the deer-kind, have determined season for rutting, procreate earlier than other animals.

 

            There are so many relations between the nutrition, the production of horns, the rutting, and the generation of these animals, that, to have a clear conception of the particular effects which result from them, it is necessary to give a general recapitulation of what I formerly advanced on the subject of reproduction.*  Generation depends solely on a redundance of nourishment.  During the growth of an animal, which is always most rapid in infancy, the nourishment is entirely exhausted in the extension and developement [sic] of the body.  Hence there is no redundance, consequently no production or secre- [88] tion of seminal fluid, and, of course, young animals are incapable of procreation.  But, when they have attained the greatest part of their growth, the redundance of nourishment begins to manifest itself by new productions.  In man, the beard, the hair, the prominency of the breasts, and the expansion of the organs of generation, appear at the age of puberty.  In the brute creation, and particularly in the stag, this redundance produces effects still more remarkable, as the growth of horns, the swelling of the testicles, the turgidity of the neck and throat, the fat, the rutting, &c.  And, as the growth of the stag is at first very rapid, only a year passes before the redundance of nourishment begins to show itself by the production of horns:  If brought forth in May, the rudiments of the horns appear in the same month of the following year; and they continue to lengthen and acquire solidity, in proportion to the quantity of nourishment taken by the animal.  About the end of August, they are fully grown, and so dense and insensible, that the animal rubs them against the trees, in order to deprive them of the skin or scurf with which they are covered.  At the same time, the fat, which is likewise produced by the redundance of nourishment, ceases to accumulate, and begins to be determined towards the organs of generation, and to excite in the stag that ardour of desire which renders him perfectly furious.  That the production of horns, and the secretion of semen depend on the same cause, is evident [89] from this fact, that, when the organs necessary for the secretion of semen are destroyed by castration, the production of the horns is likewise prevented; for, if this operation is performed after the horns are shed, they are never renewed; and if, on the contrary, it is done when the horns are perfect, they never fall off.  In a word, after castration, the animal remains during life in the same condition it was before that operation.  As it feels no longer the ardour of rutting, the concomitant symptoms likewise disappear.  There is no longer any accumulation of fat or suet, no more turgidity of the neck and throat, and the disposition of the creature becomes more gentle and tranquil.  The parts cut off, therefore, were necessary, not only for collecting the redundant nourishment, but likewise for pushing it to the surface of the body in the form of fat, and particularly to the top of the head, where it gives rise to the horns, and for giving vigour and spirit to the animal.  Castrated stags, it is true, become fat; but they produce no horns; their neck and throat never swell; and their fat is never so highly exalted as that of entire stags, which, in the rutting season, have an odour so strong, as to be perceived at a great distance; and their flesh is so infected with it, that it is uneatable, offensive to the smell, and putrifies in a very short time; while that of the castrated stag may be preserved fresh, and eat at all seasons.  The difference between the hors of stags of the [90] same age, of which some are thick, and others thin and slender, which is solely owing to a defect of food, is another proof that the horns are produced by redundant nourishment:  For a stag which inhabits a rich country, where he is not disturbed by dogs or men, but is allowed to feed and ruminate in peace, will always have the highest, widest, largest, and most branchy horns.  But those which live in situations where they can neither find repose nor a sufficient quantity of food, will have horns with few branches, slender stems, and brow-antlers.  Thus it is easy to judge, by the horns of the stag, whether he has lived in a rich and peaceful country, or the opposite.  Those which are in bad condition, have been wounded, or much disturbed by hunting, are seldom fat, or have fine horns; their rutting time is also later; and their horns are neither so soon shed or renewed.  Hence every circumstance concurs in demonstrating that the horns, like the seminal fluid, are nothing but the redundant and superfluous organic nourishment, which could not be exhausted in expanding and supporting the animal body.

 

            It is, therefore, apparent, that penury of food both retards the growth and diminishes the size of the horns; and, perhaps, it is not impossible, by retrenching the quantity of food, to suppress entirely this production, without having recourse to castration.  It is, however, certain, that castrated stags eat less food than those which are unmutilated; and the females of this species, as [91] well as those of the fallow-deer, the roe, and the elk, have no horns, because they eat less than the males; and because, at the very time that redundance of nourishment would naturally happen, they are with young, and, instead of showing itself externally, it is first exhausted in nourishing the foetus, and afterwards in nourishing the fawn.  The objection, that the female rain-deer [sic], which has horns like the male, rather supports than weakens this argument; for, of all horned animals, the rain-deer, in proportion to his size, has the largest and most voluminous horns, often extending, before and behind, the whole length of the body.  He likewise abounds most in fat;* and, besides, the horns of the female are much smaller than those of the male.  This example, therefore, proves no more than that, when the redundance is so great as not to be exhausted by gestation and the growth of the foetus, it breaks through the body, and forms a new production, as in the male, only smaller in size, because the quantity of redundant matter is less.

 

            What I have remarked concerning nourishment ought not to b e extended to the mass or volume of the aliments, but only to the quantity of organic particles, that living, active, and prolific matter which unfolds and supports all animated beings.  The rest is nothing but dregs, which may be more or less in quantity, without inducing any change upon the body:  And, as the [92] lichen rangiferinus, or rain-deer liverwort, is the ordinary food of the rain-deer, and is more substantial than the leaves, the bark, or the buds of trees, it is not surprising, that this animal should have a greater redundance of organic particles, and, consequently, larger horns, and more fat, than the common stag.  It must be acknowledged, however, that the organic matter which produces the horns is not perfectly disengaged from useless particles, and that it preserves, after passing the body o f the animal, marks of its former vegetable state.  The horns of the stag shoot, grow, and are disposed like the branches of a tree.  Its substance is, perhaps, less osseous than lignous.  To use the expression, it is a vegetable grafted upon an animal, participating of the nature of both, and forming on of those shades by which nature always bounds the extremities of her productions, and which she employs to connect substances that are greatly removed from each other.

 

            In the animal, as formerly remarked,* both extremities of the bones grow at a time.  The fulcrum upon which the extending power is exerted, is in the middle of the bone, which part is always first ossified, and from which the two extremes progressively recede, and continue soft till the bone acquires its full length.  In the vegetable, on the contrary, only one extremity of the wood grows.  The bud, which unfolds to form a [93] branch, is attached to the old wood by its inferior extremity, and upon this fulcrum the power of longitudinal extension acts.  This remarkable difference between the vegetation of bones and the solid parts of plants, dos not take place in the horns of stags.  On the contrary, nothing can be more similar to the growth of a tree.  The horns extend at one extremity only, the other serving for a fulcrum.  They are first tender as an herb, and then harden like wood.  The skin which covers and grows along with them is their bark, and it is rubbed off after they attain their full size.  As long as they continue to grow, their extremities are soft; and they likewise divide into several branches.  In a word, every circumstance is similar, and corresponds in the development of both.  Hence the organic particles, which constitute the living substance of the stag, still retain the impression of the vegetable; because they arrange themselves in the same order as the parts of plants.  Here it is apparent, that matter has an influence upon form.  The stag which inhabits the forest, and feeds only on the sprigs of trees, takes so strong an impression from the wood, that he produces a species of tree, which preserves indelible and evident marks of its origin.  This effect, though singular, is not solitary, and depends on a general cause, which I have already pointed out.

 

            Both in animals and vegetables, the character, or mould, of each species, is the most constant [94] and unalterable thing in Nature:  What is most variable, and desultory, is the matter of which they are composed.  Matter, in general, seems to be indifferent to all forms, and capable of receiving every possible impression.  The organic or living particles of this matter pass from vegetables to animals, without destruction or alteration, and form equally the living substance of the herb, of the wood, of the flesh, and of the bones.  According to this view, it appears that matter can never have any influence on form, and that no kind of food, provided the animal can extract the organic particles, and assimilate them by nutrition, could induce any change upon the form, or have any other effect than to support and expand the body, by modeling itself upon all the particles of the interior mould, and intimately penetrating them.  What proves this point is, that animals which live upon herbage, a substance very different from that of their own bodies, extract from it materials sufficient for the production of flesh and blood, and that they are nourished and grow as well as animals who feed upon flesh alone.  However, by examining Nature more minutely, we shall find, that these organic particles sometimes do not perfectly assimilate themselves to the internal mould, and that matter has often a sensible influence upon form.  Size, for example, which is one of the attributes of form, varies in every species, according to the difference of climate.  The quality and quantity [95] of flesh, two other attributes of form, change according to the difference of food.  This organic matter, therefore, which the animal assimilates to its own body by nutrition, is not absolutely indifferent to the reception of every form, nor deprived of the original figure which it possessed.  It retains some characters of its primitive state.  It acts, therefore, by its proper form upon that of the organized body to which it affords nourishment; and, though this action is almost imperceptible, and infinitely inferior to the power which obliges the organic particles to assimilate themselves to the internal mould that receives them, yet, in the progress of time, sensible effects must result from it.  The stag, who inhabits the forests, and lives solely upon wood, produces and carries about with him a species of trees, which is nothing but the redundant part of his nourishment.  The beaver, who lives in the waters, and feeds upon fishes, has a tail covered with scales.  The flesh of the otter, and of most water fowls, is a lent diet, a kind of fishy flesh.  We may, therefore, presume, that animals perpetually nourished by the same food, however strong the original impression of nature, would, in process of time, acquire a tincture from the qualities of this food, and undergo a kind of transformation, by an assimilation contrary to the first.  The nourishment would no longer assimilate itself entirely to the form of the animal, but the animal would partly assimilate itself to [96] the form of the nourishment, as we perceive in the horns of the stag and the tail of the beaver.

 

            In the stag, the horns are an accessory, a part foreign to the animal, and only regarded as belonging to him, because it proceeds from his body.  But it is really a vegetable production, since it retains the characters of that vegetable from which it derives its origin, and resembles the wood of trees, in the manner of its growth, ramification, solidity, drying, and separation; for, after acquiring its greatest density, it ceases to extract nourishment, it falls spontaneously, like a ripe fruit from the branch.  The very name given to this production in our language, is an indication that it has been regarded as wood,* and not as a horn, a bone, a tusk, &c.  And, though this theory seems to be sufficiently established by the preceding reasoning, yet I ought not to pass over a fact recorded by the antients.  Aristotle,+ Theophrastus,3 and Pliny,4 tell us, that ivy has been seen growing round the young horns of stags.  If this fact be [97] true, and it may easily be determined by experiment, an analogy still more intimate will be established between the wood of the stag and that of trees.

 

            The horns and tusks of other animals are not only different from the wood of the stag; but, in their growth, texture, and form, both external and internal, there is nothing analogous to wood.  The nails, the claws, the hairs, the hairs, the feathers, the scales of animals, grow, it is admitted, by a species of vegetation; but this vegetation differs widely from that of wood.  The horns of oxen, goats, antelopes, &c. are hollow within; but the wood of the stag is equally solid through its whole extent.  The substance of these horns is the same with that of the nails, claws, and scales:  But the horns of the stag resemble wood more than any other substance.  The inside of all hollow horns is covered with a kind of periosteum, and they contain in their cavity a bone, or core, which supports them; they never shed, but grow during the life of the animal; and its age may be learned by their rings or annual circles.  Instead of growing by their superior extremity, like the wood of the stag, they grow like nails, feathers, and hairs, by their inferior extremity.  In the same manner, the tusks of the elephant, walrus, and wild boar, and all other animals, are hollow within, and grow only by their inferior extremity.  Thus horns and [98] tusks have no more analogy to the wood of the stag than nails, hairs, or feathers. 

 

            Vegetation may, therefore, be reduced to three kinds.  The first, in which the growth proceeds from the superior extremity, as in plants, trees, and the wood of the stag; the second, where the growth advances from the inferior extremity, as in horns, nails, claws, hairs, feathers, scales, tusks, teeth, and other external parts of animal bodies; the third, in which the growth proceeds from both extremities at the same time, as in bones, cartilages, muscles, tendons, and other internal parts of animals.  The material cause of all these three species, is the redundance of organic nourishment; and the assimilation of this nourishment by the internal mould, which receives it, is the effect.  Thus the growth of an animal is always more or less rapid, in proportion to the quantity of this redundant nourishment; and, after the greatest part of growth is acquired, it is determined to the seminal reservoirs, endeavours to escape from the body, and to produce, by means of copulation, new organized beings.  The difference between animals, which, like the stag, have fixed seasons, and other animals which can engender at all times, proceeds entirely from their manner of feeding.  Man and domestic animals, who have daily an equal quantity of food, and often too much, are perpetually in a capacity for procreation.  The stag, on the contrary, and most wild animals, who suffer greatly [99] in the winter for want of food, have then nothing redundant, and are incapable of generating till they recruit during the summer.  It is immediately after this season that the stag begins to rut; and, by the great waste he suffers at this period, he continues, during winter, in a state of languor and debility.  His flesh is then so meagre, and his blood so impoverished, that worms breed under his skin, which still augment his misery, and he does not get quit of them till the spring, when he acquires new life and vigour by the active nourishment furnished to him by the fresh productions of the earth.

 

            Thus the life of the stag is spent in alternate plenty and want, vigour and debility, health and sickness, without having any change introduced into his constitution by these opposite extremes.  He lives as long as other animas which are not subjected to such vicissitudes.  As he grows five or six years, he lives seven times that number, or from 35 to 40 years.*  What has been reported concerning the longevity of the stag merits no credit.  It is only a popular prejudice which prevailed in the days of Aristotle, and which that philosopher considered as improbable, because neither the time of gestation, nor of the growth of the young stag, indicated long life.+  [100]  This authority ought to have abolished the prejudice:  But it has been renewed, in the ages of ignorance, by a fabulous account of a stag taken by Charles VI. in the forest of Senlis, with a collar upon which was written this inscription, Caesar hoc me donavit.   The love the marvellous inclined men to believe that this animal had lived a thousand years, and had his collar from a Roman Emperor, rather than to suppose that he came from Germany, where all the Emperors take name of Caesar.

 

            The horns of the stag augment annually both in height and thickness, from the second to the eighth year, and continue nearly in equal beauty during all the vigour of life.  But when he grows old, his horns decline.  Our stags have seldom more than twenty or twenty-two antlers or palms; and this number, even when at the highest pitch of vigour and perfection, is by no means constant; for it varies every year, according to the quantity of nourishment and repose the animal has enjoyed:  The largeness of the horns depends on the same cause; and their quality is also determined by the kind of nourishment they receive.  Like the wood of the forest, the wood of the stag is large, tender, and light in moist and fertile countries, and short, hard, and heavy, in dry and barren regions. 

 

            The size and stature of the animals themselves likewise differ according to the places they inhabit.  The stags which frequent the valleys, [101] or hills abounding in grain, are larger and taller than those which feed upon dry and rocky mountains.  The latter are low, thick, and short.  Neither are they equally swift; but they run longer than the former:  They are also more vicious, and have longer hair on their heads.  Their horns are commonly short and black, like a stunted tree, the bark of which is always of a darker colour.  But the horns of the stags which feed in the plains are high, and of a clear reddish colour, like the wood and bark of trees which grow in a good soil.  These little squat stags never frequent the lofty woods, but keep always among the coppices, where they can more easily elude the pursuit of the dogs.  The Corsican appears to be the smallest of these mountain-stags. He exceeds not the half of the height of the ordinary kind, and may be regarded as a terrier among stags.  His colour is brown, his body is squat, and his legs are short.  And, what convinces me, that the size and stature of stags in general depend on the quantity and quality of their food, is, that, having reared one at my house, and fed him very plentifully for four years, he was much taller, thicker, and plumper at that age than the oldest stags in my woods, which are, however, of a very good size.

 

            Yellow is the most common colour of the stag.  But many of them are brown, and others [102] red.  White stags are more rare, and seem to be a race that has become domestic, but very antiently; for both Aristotle and Pliny mention white stags; and they appear then to have been equally uncommon as at present.  The colour of the horns, like that of the hair, depends on the age and nature of the animal, and the impression of the air.  The horns of young stags are whitish, and less deeply coloured than those of the old.  Stags, whose colour is a clear diluted yellow, have often pale ill-coloured horns.  Those which are of a lively yellow have generally red horns; and brown stags, especially those which have black hair on the neck, have likewise black horns.  The internal substance of the horns, it is true, is almost equally white in all stags; but they differ greatly in solidity and texture.  Some of them are very spongy, and even contain pretty large cavities.  This difference in texture is sufficient to account for their assuming different colours; and it is unnecessary to have recourse to the juices of trees, since we daily see the whitest ivory turn yellow or brown after being exposed to the air, though its texture be much more compact than that of the stag’s horns.

 

            The stag appears to have fine eye, an acute smell, and an excellent ear.  When listening, he raises his head, erects; his ears, and hears from a great distance.  When he is going into a coppice, or other half covered place, he stops to look round him on all sides, and scents the wind, [103] to discover if any object is near that might disturb him.  He is a simple, and yet a curious and crafty animal.  When hissed or called to from a distance, he stops short, and looks stedfastly [sic] and with a kind of admiration, at carriages, cattle, or men; and, if they have neither arms nor dogs, he moves on unconcernedly, and without flying.  He appears to listen, with great tranquillity [sic] and delight, to the shepherd’s pipe; and the hunters sometimes employ this artifice to encourage and deceive him.  In general, he is less afraid of men than of dogs, and is never suspicious, or uses any arts of concealment, but in proportion to the disturbances he has received. He eats slow, and has a choice in his aliment; and, after his stomach is full, he lies down, and ruminates at leisure.  He seems to ruminate with less facility than the ox.  It is only by violent shakes that the stag can make the food rise from his first stomach.  This difficulty proceeds from the length and direction of the passage through which the aliment has to go.  The neck of the ox is short and straight; but that of the stag is long and arched; and therefore greater efforts are necessary to raise the food.  These efforts are made by a kind of hiccup, the movement of which is apparent, and continues during the time of rumination.  His voice is stronger, and more quivering, in proportion as he advances in years.  The voice of the hind is shorter and more feeble.  She never [104] bellows from love, but from fear.  The stag, during the rutting season, bellows in a frightful manner:  He is then so transported, that nothing disturbs or terrifies him.  He is, therefore, easily surprised; as he is loaded with fat, he cannot keep long before the dogs.  But he is dangerous when at bay, and attacks the dogs with a species of fury.  He drinks none in winter, nor in spring, the dews and tender herbage being then sufficient to extinguish his thirst.  But, during the parching heats of summer, to obtain drink, he frequents the brooks, the marshes, and the fountains; and, in the season of love, he is so over-heated, that he searches every where for water, not only to satisfy his immoderate thirst, but to bathe and refresh his body.  He then swims easier than at any other times on account of his fatness.  He has been observed crossing very large rivers.  It has even been alledged, that, attracted by the odour of the hinds, the stags, in the rutting season, throw themselves into the sea, and pass from one island to another at the distance of several leagues.  They leap still more nimbly than they swim; for, when pursued, they easily clear a hedge or a pale fence of six feet high.  Their food varies in different seasons.  In autumn, after rutting, they search for the buds of green shrubs, the flowers of broom or heath, the leaves of brambles, &c.  During the snows of winter, they feed upon the bark, moss, &c. of trees; and, in mild weather, [105] they bronze in the wheat-fields.  In the beginning of spring, they go in quest of the catkins of the trembling poplar, willow, and hazel trees, the flowers and buds of the cornel-tree, &c.  In summer, when they have great choice, they prefer rye to all other grain, and the black berry-bearing alder* to all other wood.  The flesh of the fawn is very good; that of the hind and knobber not absolutely bad; but that of the stag has always a strong and disagreeable taste.  The skin and the horns are the most useful parts of this animal.  The skin makes a pliable and very durable leather.  The horns are used by cutlers, sword-slippers, &c. and a volatile spirit, much employed in medicine, is extracted from them by the chymists [sic].

 

SUPPLEMENT.

 

            It is well known, that, in many animals, as cats, owls, &c. the pupil of the eye contracts prodigiously in the light, and dilates in the dark.  But this great contraction and dilation had never been observed in the eyes of the stag.  I received from M. Beccaria, a learned physician and celebrated professor at Pisa, the following letter, dated at Turin, October 28. 1767.

           

            “I presented a piece of bread,” says M. Beccaria, “to a stag that was confined in an obscure [106] apartment, to allure him to a window, that I might admire at leisure the rectangular and transverse form of his pupils, which, in a strong light, exceed not half a line in width, by about five lines in length.  In a fainter light, their breadth enlarges to more than a line and a half; but still preserve their rectangular figure: And in passing from light to darkness, they dilate about four lines, but always transversely, that is, horizontally, and preserving their rectangular form.  These facts may be easily ascertained, by laying the hand upon the eye of a stag; for, whenever the eye is uncovered, the pupil will be seen dilated above four lines.”

 

            From this fact M. Beccaria concludes with probability, that the other species of deer enjoy the same power of contracting and dilating their pupils. But, what is most remarkable, the pupils of cats, owls, and several other animals, contract and dilate vertically, while that of the stag contracts and dilates horizontally.

 

            To the history of the stag, I must add a fact communicated to me by M. le Marquis d’Amezaga, who, to much learning, has joined great experience in the chace.

 

            “Stags,” he remarks, “shed their horns sooner or later in the month of March, in proportion to their ages.  At the end of June, the horns of the old stag are long, and begin to itch him.  It is at this time also, that the stags [107] begin to rub off the skin which covers their horns.  At the commencement of August, their horns begin to assume that consistence which they retain during the rest of the year:  On the 17th of October, the attendants of the Prince of Conde pursued a stag of six years old.  This was the rutting season, when the stags are much less vigorous; but we were surprised to find the animal fly at a great rate, and lead near six leagues from his harbour.”

 

            “When the stag was seized, we found that his horns were white, and sprinkled with blood, as they ought to be at the time they are rubbed against the tree; and that they had still rags of the skin which covers them during the time of their growth.  His horns were diversified with many branches.  All the hunters who were in at the death expressed their surprise at these appearances.  But their astonishment was augmented, when they wanted to remove his testicles; for none were to be found in the scrotum.  But, after opening the body, two testicles were discovered in the abdomen about the size of filberds, and we clearly perceived that he had never experienced the effects of the rut.  It is well known, that, during the months of June, July, and August, the stags are prodigiously loaded with fat, which is generally so entirely exhausted about the middle of September, that nothing but the muscular flesh remains.  But this stag had lost [108] none of his fat, because he was never in a condition for rutting.  He had still another singularity; for, in the right foot, he wanted the middle bone, which, in the left, was half an inch long, and as large and pointed as a tooth-pick.”

 

            “It  is well known, that a stag, castrated when he has no horns, never afterwards acquires them, and that, if the operation is performed when his horns are in perfection, they remain in the same state during life.  Hence it appears, that the very minute organs of generation above described were sufficient to produce the annual change of horns; but that Nature has always proceeded slowly in the conformation of this animal; for we could discover no marks of any accident which could induce us to believe that the order of Nature had been deranged.  It is, therefore, reasonable to suppose, that this retardation proceeded from the imbecility of the organs of generation, which, however, were sufficient to produce the fall and renewal of the horns, since the cabbage or burs demonstrated, that, at the time this stag was killed, he had horns annually from the second to the sixth year.”

 

            These observations of the Marquis d’Amezaga seem to prove, in a still stronger manner than any thing formerly remarked, that the fall and renovation of the stag’s horns depend entirely on the presence of the testicles, and partly on [109] their being more or less perfect; for, in the instance before us, the testicles being imperfect and too small, the horns, for that reason, in their growth, shedding, and renewal, were much later than in other stags.

 

            Pontoppiodan, when speaking of the Norwegian stags, remarks, “that they are only found in the dioceses of Bergen and Drontheim; that they sometimes swim in flocks across the straits between the continent and the neighbouring islands, resting their heads upon each other’s crupper; and that, when the chief of the file is fatigued, he retires behind to repose himself, and the most vigorous occupies his place.”*

 

            It has been thought, that the stags of our forests might, by treating them with care and gentleness, as the Laplanders manage the rain-deer, be rendered domestic.  Upon this subject, M. le Vicomte de Querhoënt has communicated to me the following fact.  Stags were first brought to the Isle of France by the Portuguese.  They are small, and of a greyer colour than those of Europe, from whom, however, they derived their origin.  When the French took possession of this island, they found great numbers of those stags, of which they destroyed a part, and the remainder took refuge in the most retired places.  They are now rendered domestic, [110] and some of the inhabitants keep large flocks of them. 

 

            I have seen, at l’Ecole Veterinaire, a small kind of stag, which was said to have been brought from the Cape of Good Hope. Its skin was interspersed with white spots, like that of the axis. It was called the Hog-stag, because its legs were thicker, and it had not the same agility of body as the common kind.  The figure of it is represented in the Plate.  Its length from the muzzle to the extremity of the body, was only three feet four inches and a half; the legs were short, and the feet and hoofs very small; the colour yellow, mixed with white spots; the eye black and open, with large black hair on the upper eye-lid; the nostrils black, with a blackish band at the corners of the mouth; the colour of the head the same with that of the belly, only mixed with grey, and brown on the chanfrin and sides of the eyes; the ears very large, garnished on the inside with white hairs, and with smooth hair, mixed with yellow, on the outside.  The horns of this stag were eleven inches seven lines in length, and ten lines thick.  The top of the back was browner than the rest of the body.  The tail was yellow above and white below; and the legs were of a brownish black colour.* [111]

 

            This animal seems to approach nearer to the stag than the fallow-deer, as appears from the bare inspection of his horns.  [112]  [PLATE LI here] [PLATE LII here] [PLATE LIII here] [PLATE LIII {sic} here]

 

Notes

 

*  The deer kind have upright, solid, branched horns, which annually fall off; eight cutting teeth in the lower jaw, and none in the upper.  The STAG has long, upright, rounded, and much branched horns:  The brow antlers are slender and sharp.  The colour of the stag is generally a reddish brown, with some black about the face, and a black list runs down the hind part of the neck and between the shoulders.  It grows to a large size; one killed in the country of Aberdeen weighed 18 stone Scots weight, or 314 lb.  The horns of the American stag sometimes weigh 30 lb. and are about four feet high.  Pennant’s Synops. of quad. p. 49.

            The name of the stag in Greek is [a word in Greek letters I can’t reproduce on my keyboard], in Latin Cervus, in Italian Cervo; in Spanish Ciervo; in Portuguese Veado; in German Hirsch; in Danish Hiort; in Swedish Kron-hiort; in Dutch Hért; in Polish Jelijenii.

            Cervus, Gesner. Icon. animal. quad. p. 43. 44.  Aldrov. quad. bisulc. P. 771. 774.  Johnst. hist. nat. p. 58. tab. 35. fig. 1.  Charleton de differ. animal. p. 8.  Ray, Synops. quad. p. 84.  Plinii lib. 8.

            CHARACT. GEN.  Cervus, cornua solida, tenera, corio hirto tecta, apiceque crescentia, denudate, annua.  Dentes primores inferiors VIII.  Laniarii nulli (interdum solitarii superius). 

            CHAR. SPEC.  Cervus elaphus, cornibus ramosis, teretibus, recurvatis.  Linn. Syst. nat. p. 93.

            Cervus nobilis, ramis teretibus, omnibus notus; Klein, quad. hist. nat. p. 23 [back to page 75].

 

To harbour a stag, is to go round the place in which he has taken refuge, and to learn whether he has not escaped.

Knobber is a stag after he passes his first year till he arrives at the third.

3.  In the third, fourth , or fifth year of his age [back to page 77].

 

*  A stag is said to be old from eight years and upwards.

Foot is used for the impression made on the ground by the foot.

3.  In the language of hunters, leg means the two bones behind the foot, which make an impression of the ground along with the foot.

4.  This mark is equivocal; for the wearing of the hoof depends much on the plainness or roughness of the country which the animals frequent [back to page 78].

 

To misplace, is to put the hind foot out of the track of the fore foot [back to page 79].

 

*  When a stag is worn out with fatigue, he turns upon the hounds, and is said to be at bay [back to page 81].

 

*  Le nouveau traité de la venerie, p. 37 [back to page 83].

 

*  Aristot. Hist. animal. lib. 6. c. 29 [back to page 86].

 

*  See above, vol. II. chap. 2. 3. 4 [back to page 88].

 

*  La Venerie de du Foillous, p. 97 [back to page 92].

 

*  See above, vol. II. art. Of Old age and Death [back to page 93].

 

*  The French call the horns of a stag his wood.

+  Captus jam cervus est, hederam suis entatam cornibus gerens viridem, quae cornu adhuc tenello forte inserta, quasi lingo viridi coaluerit.  Arist. Hist. Animal. l. ix. c. 5.

3.  Hedera in multis creatur, et quod mirabilius, visa est in cornibus cervi etiam aliquando.  Commovit (inquit Jull. Scaliger apud Theophrastum) virum accuratum cervi cornibus haerens hedera; quid enim eo seminium detulit, &c.  Lib. II de Caus. Plant. cap. 23.

4.  In mollioribus cervorum cornibus hedera coalescit, dum ex arborum attritu illa experiuntur.  Plin. de admirand. auditionibus  [back to page 97].

 

*  Nouveau traité de la venerie, p. 141.

+  Voita esse perquam longa hoc animal fertur; sed nihil certi ex iis quae narrantur videmus; nec gestation aut incrememtum hinnulli ita evenit quasa vita esset praelonga.  Arist. Hist. Animal. lib. vi. c. 29 [back to page 100].

 

* Rhamnus frangula Linn [back to page 106].

 

*  Pontoppidan’s Nat. Hist. of Norway [back to page 110].

 

*  Mr Pennant, in his Synopsis of Quadrupeds, which was published in the year 1771, has described this animal as a distinct species of deer.  It is surprising, that this circumstance [111] should have escaped our author, especially as the two descriptions very in several particulars.  Mr Pennant’s words are:  “PORCINE DEER, with slender trifurcated hrons, thirteen inches long, six inches distant at the base; head ten inches and a half long:  Body, from the tip of the nose to the tail, three feet six inches:  Height, from the shoulders to the hoof, two feet two inches, and about two inches higher behind: Length of the tail eight inches:  Body thick and clumsy:  Legs fine and slender:  Colour on the upper part of the neck, body, and sides, brown; belly and rump of a lighter colour.  In possession of Lord Clive; brought from the some part of India; called, from the thickness of their body, Hog Deer.”  Synops. of quad. p. 52 [Smellie’s note.  This note straddles two pages, with the break occurring where indicated above.  Back to page 111].