Part 90

The stag or red deer is common in Europe, Barbary, the north of Asia, and North America; it abounds in the southern parts of Siberia, where it grows to an immense size, but is now extirpated in Russia. It lives in herds, and there is generally one male which is supreme in each herd. The colour of the stag is generally a reddish brown, with some black and white about the face, and a black line down the hinder part of the neck between the shoulders, and the belly white. Sometimes their colour is a pale yellow brown, sometimes a blackish brown, and lastly, instances occasionally occur of stags being found entirely white.

The stag possesses a fine eye, an acute smell, and excellent ear, like that of the cat and the owl; the eye of the stag contracts in the light, and dilates in the dark, but with this difference, that the contraction and dilatation are horizontal, while in the first mentioned animals they are vertical.

When deer are thirsty, they plunge their noses, like some horses, very deep under water while in the act of drinking, and continue them in that situation for a considerable time.

The number of teeth of the various species of deer and the antelope tribe, is generally thirty-two, namely, eight cutting teeth in the lower jaw, six molar teeth on each side of these, and six molar teeth on each side in the upper jaw; but there are frequent exceptions to this rule.

The cry of the hind or female is not so loud as that of the male, and is never excited but by apprehension for herself or her young. It need scarcely be mentioned that she has no horns, or that she is more feeble or unfit for hunting than the male. When once she has conceived she separates from the males, and then they both herd apart. The time of gestation continues eight months and a few days, and they seldom produce more than one at a birth. Their usual season for bringing forth is about the month of May, or the beginning of June. They take the greatest care to secrete their young in the most obscure thickets, nor is the caution without reason, as many creatures are their formidable enemies. The eagle, the falcon, the wolf, the dog, and all the rapacious family of the cat kind, are continually seeking to discover her retreat. But what is more unnatural still, the stag himself is a professed enemy, and she is obliged to use all her arts to conceal her young from him, as from the most dangerous of her pursuers. At this season, therefore, the courage of the male seems transferred to the female; she defends her young against her less formidable opponents by force, and, when pursued by the hunter, she offers herself to mislead him from the principal object of his concern. She flies before the hounds for half the day, and then returns to her offspring, whose life she has thus preserved at the hazard of her own.

Those persons who are fond of the pastime of hunting have their peculiar terms for the different objects of their pursuit. Thus the stag is called, the first year, a _calf_ or _hind calf_, the second a _knobber_, the third a _brock_, the fourth a _staggard_, the fifth a _stag_, the sixth a _hart_. The female is called, the first year, a _calf_, the second a _hearse_, the third a _hind_.

In Britain the stag is become less common than formerly, its excessive viciousness during the rutting season inducing most people to dispense with this species, and rear the fallow deer, which is of a more placid nature, in its stead. Some attempts have, indeed, been made to render stags domestic, by treating them with the same gentleness as the Laplanders do their rein-deer; and it appears, in the Isle of France, where the Portuguese had introduced the European breed, they had so far succeeded, by degrees, as to render them quite domestic, many of the inhabitants keeping large flocks of them; but when the French took possession of that island, they destroyed most of these domesticated stags. Valmont de Bromere asserts that he saw in Germany, a set, or attelage, consisting of six stags, that were perfectly obedient to the curb and to the whip; and in the magnificent stables of Chantilly, in the year 1770, there were two stags that were occasionally harnessed to a small chariot, in which they drew two persons.

Stags are still found wild in the Highlands of Scotland, in herds of four or five hundred together, ranging at full liberty over the vast hills of the north, and some of them grow to a great size: Pennant says, upon the authority of Mr. Farquharson, that one of these wild stags weighed three hundred and fourteen pounds, exclusive of the entrails, head, and skin. Formerly the great Highland chieftains used to hunt with all the magnificence of eastern monarchs, assembling four or five thousand of their clan, who drove the deer into the toils, or to the station their lairds had placed themselves in. But as the chace was frequently used as a pretence for collecting their vassals for rebellious purposes, an act was passed prohibiting any assembly of this kind.

Stags are likewise met with on the moors that border on Cornwall and Devonshire, and Ireland, on the mountains of Kerry, where they add greatly to the magnificence of the romantic scenery of the lakes of Killarney.

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Stags are mostly kept in parks, with fallow deer. Dr. Johnson describes them as not exceeding the common deer in size, and that their flesh is of equal flavour. From a stag that had been committing depredations on the farmers’ corn during a whole summer, and which was accidentally hunted and killed, after a long run, a haunch weighing forty-six pounds, was allowed by very competent judges to be the highest flavoured and fattest venison they had ever tasted. The stag’s age is partly known by the horns, which he begins to shed about the end of February, and the new horns are complete and polished in July or August: at six years, the antlers amount to six or seven on each side; their number is uncertain, nor can the years be precisely ascertained beyond that period, as the new horns come like those last shed. The eye of the stag is peculiarly beautiful, soft, and sparkling, and is, for these attributes, frequently alluded to in Eastern poetry; he hears quickly, and his sense of smelling is highly perfect; his powers of leaping are often astonishingly exerted during the chase, and in the New Forest is a celebrated spot called the Deer Leap, where a stag was once shot, and in the agony of death, collecting his strength, gave a bound which so surprised those that saw it, that it is commemorated by two posts, fixed at the extremity of the leap: the space between them is something more than eighteen yards. The stag’s rutting season is in August, and continues about three weeks, when he becomes a dangerous animal: he then frequents rivers or pools of water, to cool his ardour; he swims with great power and facility, and to this element he always retreats, when hard pressed by the hounds. The hind, at the expiration of eight months and a few days, produces seldom more than one young, which she resolutely protects from every enemy, and carefully conceals from the stag, one of the worst. During the whole summer the fawn never quits the dam; and in winter the stags and hinds of all ages keep together in herds, which are more or less numerous, according to the mildness or rigour of the season. They separate in the spring; the hinds retire to bring forth, while none but the young ones remain together. Stags are gregarious, delight to graze in company, and are separated but by danger or necessity.

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While traversing a low range of moors, an incident occurred which, at this season, was unaccountable. A red-and-white setter pointed at the top of a little glen. The heathy banks on both sides of a mountain rivulet undulated gently from the stream, and caused a dipping of the surface; the ground seemed a favourable haunt for grouse, and our dogs were beating it with care. Observing the setter drop, his companions backed, and remained steady, when suddenly Hero rose from his couchant attitude, and next moment a wild deer of enormous size and splendid beauty crossed before the dog and sprang the birds he had been pointing. The apparition of the animal, so little expected, and so singularly and closely introduced to our view, occasioned a sensation I had never hitherto experienced. I rushed up the bank; unembarrassed by our presence, the noble deer swept past us in a light and graceful canter, at the short distance of some seventy or eighty yards. I might have fired at and annoyed him—but on a creature so powerful small shot could have produced little effect, and none but a cockney, under such circumstances, would waste a charge. To teaze without a chance of bringing down the gallant beast, would have been a species of useless mischief, meriting a full month upon the tread-mill. I gazed after him as he gradually increased his distance; his antlers were expanded as fully as my arms would extend; his height was magnificent, and compared with fallow-deer he seemed a giant to a dwarf. The sun beamed upon his deep bay side, as he continued describing a circular course over the flat surface of the moor, till reaching a rocky opening leading to the upper hills, he plunged into the ravine, and we lost sight of him.

What could have driven the red deer so low upon the heath was marvellous. Excepting when disturbed by a solitary hunter, or a herdsman in pursuit of errant cattle, or driven from the summit of the hills by snow and storm, those deer are rarely seen below the Alpine heights they inhabit. But the leisure pace of the beautiful animal we saw to-day, proved that he had not been alarmed in his lair, and led one almost to fancy, that in freakish mood, he had abandoned his mountain home to take a passing glance at men and things beneath him.

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I will not pretend to describe the anxious, nay agonising hour that I passed in this highland ambuscade. The deep stillness of the waste was not broken even by the twittering of a bird. From the place where I lay concealed, I commanded a view of the defile for the distance of some eighty yards, and my eye turned to the path by which I expected the deer to approach, until to gaze longer pained me. My ear was equally engaged; the smallest noise was instantly detected, and the ticking of my watch appeared sharper and louder than usual. As time wore on my nervousness increased. Suddenly a few pebbles fell—my heart beat faster—but it was a false alarm. Again, I heard a faint sound, as if a light foot pressed upon loose shingle—it was repeated—by Saint Hubert, it is the deer! they have entered the gorge of the pass, and approach the rock that covers me, in a gentle canter!

To sink upon one knee and cock both barrels was a moment’s work. Reckless of danger, the noble animals, in single file, galloped down the narrow pathway. The hart led the way, followed by the doe, and the old stag brought up the rear. As they passed me at the short distance of twenty paces, I fired at the leader, and, as I thought, with deadly aim; but the ball passed over his back, and splintered the rock beyond him. The report rang over the waste, and the deer’s surprise was evinced by the tremendous rush they made to clear the defile before them. I selected the stag for my second essay; eye and finger kept excellent time, as I imagined—I drew the trigger—a miss by every thing unfortunate! The bullet merely struck a tyne from his antler, and, excepting this trifling graze, he went off at a thundering pace, uninjured.

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The deer had separated—the hart and doe turned suddenly to the right, and were fired at by my cousin, without effect. The stag went right a-head; and while I still gazed after him, a flash issued from a hollow in the hill, the sharp report of Hennessey’s piece succeeded, and the stag sprang full six feet from the ground, and tumbling over and over repeatedly, dropped upon the bent-grass with a rifle-bullet in his heart.

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In addition to a herd of fallow deer, amounting to about one thousand six hundred, which are kept in Richmond Park, there is generally a stock of from forty to fifty red deer. Some stags from the latter are selected every year, and sent to Swinley, in order to be hunted by the king’s stag-hounds. When a stag, which has been hunted for three or four seasons, is returned to the park, to end his days there, he is generally more fierce and dangerous than any of the others at a particular season of the year. At that time it is sometimes not safe to approach him: and the keepers inform me that they have been obliged to fire at them with buck shot, when they have been attacked by them. They account for this ferocity, by the circumstance of the deer having been much handled, and consequently rendered more familiar with, and less afraid of, those whom they would naturally shun. It is sometimes very difficult to take stags for hunting. One fine stag was so powerful, and offered so much resistance, that two of his legs were broken in endeavouring to secure him, and he was obliged to be killed. One who had shown good sport in the royal hunt, was named ‘Sir Edmund,’ by his late Majesty, in consequence of Sir Edmund Nagle having been in at the ‘take’ after a long chase. This stag lived some years afterwards in the park; and it is a curious fact that he died the very same day on which Sir Edmund Nagle died. This deer herded with the cows, probably from having been so long separated from his usual companions.

Does are longer lived than bucks. One doe in Richmond Park lived to be twenty years old; and there are other instances of their having attained the same age.

A curious circumstance lately occurred, respecting the red deer in the park in question. In the year 1825, not a single calf was dropped by any of the hinds, though they had bred freely the preceding, and did the same in the subsequent year. I find an event recorded in the ‘Journal of a Naturalist,’ as having happened in the same year in regard to cows. It is there stated that, for many miles round the residence of the author, scarcely any female calves were born. This diminution of the usual breed of deer, and the increase of sex in another animal, is not a little remarkable.

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Of the stag’s longevity much has been asserted, which latter observations have refuted, and upon the received maxim, that animals live seven times the number of years that bring them to perfection, and this requiring six to arrive at its maturity, the stag’s age may be fixed at nearly forty years.

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Of the stag’s courage, when his personal safety requires it, the combat promoted by William, Duke of Cumberland, many years since, in an area where a stag was inclosed with a hunting tiger, and which made so resolute a defence that the tiger was at length obliged to give up, is a faithful record. It was in Ascot race week, and this novelty attracted an additional concourse of people. On a lawn by the road-side, a space was fenced in with very strong toiling, fifteen feet high, into which an old stag was turned, and shortly after the tiger was led in, hoodwinked, by two blacks who had the care of him, and his eyes and himself at once set at liberty. The instant he saw the deer, he crouched down on his belly, and creeping like a house-cat at a mouse, watched an opportunity of safely seizing his prey. The stag, however, warily turned as he turned, and this strange antagonist still found himself opposed by his formidable brow antlers. In vain the tiger attempted to turn his flanks, the stag had too much generalship, and this cautious warfare lasted until it became tedious, when his royal highness enquired, if, by irritating the tiger, the catastrophe of the combat might not be hastened; he was told it might be dangerous, but it was ordered to be done; the keepers went to the tiger, and did as they were ordered, when immediately, instead of attacking the deer, with a furious and elastic bounce, he sprang at, and cleared the toiling that enclosed him; great indeed was the confusion amongst the affrighted multitude, every one imagining him or herself the destined victim to the tiger’s rage, who, regardless of their fears, or their persons, crossed the road, and rushed into the opposite wood.

It happened a herd of fallow deer were feeding not far from the scene of action, on the haunch of one of them he instantly fastened, and brought it to the ground. His keepers, to whom he was perfectly familiarised, for some time hesitated to go near him; at length they ventured, cut the deer’s throat, and separating the haunch he had seized, which he never left from his hold for a moment, hoodwinked, and led him away with it in his mouth.

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_Stag Hunting._—I hunted two winters at Turin: but their hunting, you know, is no more like ours, than is the hot meal you there stand up to eat to the English breakfast you sit down to here. Were I to describe their manner of hunting, their infinity of dogs, their number of huntsmen, their relays of horses, their great saddles, great bits, and jack-boots, it would be no more to our present purpose than the description of a wild boar chase in Germany, or the hunting of jackalls in Bengal. _C’est une chasse magnifique, et voilà tout._ However, to give you an idea of their huntsmen, I must tell you that one day the stag (which is very unusual) broke cover, and left the forest; a circumstance which gave as much pleasure to me as displeasure to all the rest—it put every thing into confusion. I followed one of the huntsmen, thinking he knew the country best; but it was not long before we were separated: the first ditch we came to stopped him. I, eager to go on, hallooed out to him, “_Allons piqueur, sautez done._” “_Non pardi_,” replied he, very coolly, “_c’est un double fossé—je ne saute pas des double fossés_.” There was also an odd accident the same day, even to the king himself, you may think interesting; besides it was the occasion of a _bon mot_ worth your hearing.—The king, eager in the pursuit, rode into a bog, and was dismounted: he was not hurt,—he was soon on his legs, and we were all standing round him. One of his old generals, who was at some distance behind, no sooner saw the king off his horse, but he rode up full gallop to know the cause, “_Qu’est ce que c’est? qu’est ce que c’est?_” cries the old general, and in he tumbles into the same bog. Count Kevenhuller, with great humour, replied, pointing to the place, “_Voilà ce que c’est! voilà ce que c’est!_”—_Le Keux_—_Jesse_—_Wild Sports_—_White of Selborne_—_Beckford._

STAGECOACH, _s._ A coach that keeps its stages; a coach that passes and repasses on certain days for the accommodation of passengers.

STAGER, _s._ A player; an old cock grouse.

STAGHOUND (_Canis Strenuus_), _s._ A hound kept for hunting stags.

The stag-hound is now the largest and most powerful of all the dogs which go under the general term of hound. He is held higher in estimation than any other dog of chase, and has a most commanding and dignified aspect, blended with every mark of intellectual mildness.

It has been asserted by the most celebrated naturalists, that the hound, harrier, turnspit, water-dog, and spaniel, are originally of the same race; and there seem to be strong reasons for believing this to be the case, as their figures and instinctive properties are nearly allied in all of these kinds; the principal difference consisting in the length of their legs and the size of their ears, which are in all of them soft in their texture and pendulous. The hound and harrier are supposed to be the natives of Britain, France, and Germany, an opinion which is attended with some degree of reason, for when transported to warmer climates they quickly degenerate.

It seems extremely probable that this large, strong, and bony hound was the primeval stock from which all the collateral branches of this race have descended, and that all deviations from the original stem have been the result of crosses and improvements, during many centuries, by those skilled in rearing and breeding dogs of the chase, and varied in size and strength, according to the particular sport for which they are intended. At the present day there cannot be a doubt but that the practical breeder, by judicious crosses, can either enlarge or diminish the stature and strength of his pack in the course of three or four generations.

The stag-hounds exclusively devoted to that sport, in the royal establishment of this country, it is well known, have been an improved cross between the old English southern hound and the fleeter foxhound, grafted upon the bloodhound.

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Things gradually continue thus to improve in proportion as the face of the country becomes more cultivated, till animals of the chace are greatly reduced in number, so much so, that even the stag is now but seldom seen in a state of nature in this country, decreasing as the sequestered places of its abode become fewer. They are now only to be met with in a state of unrestrained freedom in those extensive moors upon the borders of Cornwall and Devonshire, and in some places of the Highlands of Scotland, and the mountains of Kerry in Ireland, in which last place they add greatly to the beauty and magnificence of the justly celebrated Lake of Killarney, where they are pursued with hound and horn.

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