own, adapted either to the nature of the climate or the face of the soil. The ancient manner was very different from that practised at present; they used their dogs only to find out the game, but not to rouse it. Hence they were not curious as to the music of their hounds or the composition of their pack; the dog that opened before he had discovered his game was held in no estimation. It was their usual manner silently to find out the animal's retreat, surrounding it with nets and engines; then drove him up with boisterous cries, and thus forced him into the toils which they had previously prepared. In succeeding time the fashion seemed to alter; more particularly in Sicily, where the manner of hunting was as follows:-The nobles and gentry, being informed which way a herd of deer passed, gave notice to each other, and appointed a day of hunting. For this purpose everyone was to bring a cross-bow or a long-bow, and a bundle of staves shod with iron, the heads bored, with a cord passing through them all. Thus provided, they came to where the herd continued grazing, and, spreading themselves about in a large circle, surrounded the deer on every side; then, each taking his stand, unbound his faggot, set up his stake, and tied the end of the cord to that of his next neighbour, at the distance of about ten feet one from the other. Between each of these stakes was hung a bunch of crimson feathers, so disposed, that with the least breath of wind they would whirl round, and preserve a sort of fluttering motion. This done, the persons who set up the staves withdrew and hid themselves in the adjacent coverts; then the chief huntsman, entering with his hounds within the lines, roused the game with a full cry. The deer, frightened and flying on all sides, on approaching the lines were scared away by the fluttering of the feathers, and wandered about within this artificial paling, still awed by the shining and fluttering plumage that encircled their retreat the huntsman, however, still pursuing, and, calling every person by name as he passed by their stand, commanded him to shoot the first, third, or sixth, as he pleased; and if any of them missed, or singled out another than that assigned him, it was considered a shameful mischance. In this manner, however, the whole herd was at last destroyed, and the day concluded with mirth and feasting.

The stags of China are of a particular kind, for they are no taller than a common house-dog; and hunting them is one of the principal diversions of the great. Their flesh while young is exceedingly good; but when they arrive at maturity it begins to grow hard and tough: however, the tongue, the muzzle, and the ears are in particular esteem among that_luxurious people. Their manner of taking them is singular enough. They carry with them the heads of some of the females stuffed, and learn exactly to imitate their cry; upon this the male does not fail to appear, and, looking on all sides, perceives the head-which is all that the hunter (who is himself concealed) discovers. Upon their nearer approach the whole company rise, surround, and often take him alive.

There are very few varieties of the red deer in this country, and they are mostly found of the same size and colour. But it is otherwise in different parts of the world, where they are seen to differ in form, in size, in horns, and in colour.

The stag of Corsica is a very small animal, being not above half the size of those common among us. His body is short and thick, his legs short, and his hair of a dark brown.

There is in the forests of Germany a kind of stag, named by the ancients the "Tragelaphus," and which the natives call the "bran deer," or the "brown deer." This is of a darker colour than the common stag, of a lighter shade upon the belly, long hair upon the neck and throat, by which it appears bearded like the goat.

There is also a very beautiful stag, which by some is

said to be a native of Sardinia; but others (among whom is Mr. Buffon) are of opinion that it comes from Africa or the East Indies. He calls it the "axis," after Pliny; and considers it as making the shade between the stag and the fallow deer. The horns of the axis are round, like those of the stag; but the form of the body entirely resembles that of the buck, and the size also is exactly the same. The hair is of four colours; namely, fallow, white, black, and grey. The white is predominant under the belly on the inside of the thighs and the legs. Along the back there are two rows of spots in a right line; but those on other parts of the body are very irregular. A white line runs along each side of this animal while the head and neck are grey. The tail is black above and white beneath; and the hair upon it is six inches long. Although there are but few individuals of the deer kind, yet the race seems diffused over all parts of the earth. The new continent of America, in which neither the sheep, the goat, nor the gazelle have been originally bred, nevertheless produces stags and other animals of the deer kind in sufficient plenty. The Mexicans have a breed of white stags in their parks, which they call" stags royal." The stags of Canada differ from ours in nothing except the size of the horns, which in them is greater, and the direction of the antlers, which rather turn back than project forward as in those of Europe. The same difference of size that obtains among our stags is also to be seen in that country; and, as we are informed by Ruysch, the Americans have brought them into the same state of domestic tameness that we have our sheep, goats, or black cattle. They send them forth in the daytime to feed in the forests; and at night they return home with the herdsman who guards them. The inha bitants have no other milk but what the hind produces, and use no other cheese but what is made from thence. In this manner we find that an animal which seems made only for man's amusement may be easily brought to supply his necessities. Nature has many stores of hap piness and plenty in reserve, which only want the call of industry to be produced, and now remain as candidates for human approbation.

THE FALLOW DEER.-No two animals can be more nearly allied than the stag and the fallow deer. Alike in form, alike in disposition, in the superb furniture of their heads, in their swiftness and timidity; and yet no two animals keep more distinct, or avoid each other with more fixed animosity. They are never seen to herd in the same place; they never engender together, or form a mixed breed; and even in those countries where the stag is common the buck seems to be entirely a stranger; in short, they both form distinct families, which though so seemingly near are still remote; and although with the same habitudes, yet retain an unalterable aversion. The fallow deer, as they are much smaller, so they seem of a nature less robust and less savage than those of the stag kind. They are found but rarely wild in the forests; they are in general bred up in parks, and kept for the purposes of hunting or of luxury, their flesh being preferred to that of any other animal. It need scarce be mentioned that the horns of the buck make its principal distinction, being broad and palmated; whereas those of the stag are in every part round. In the one, they are flatted and spread like the paim of the hand; in the other they grow like a tree, every branch being of the shape of the stem that bears it. The fallow deer also has the tail longer and the hair lighter than the stag; in other respects they pretty near resemble one another.

The head of the buck, as of all other animals of this kind, is shed every year, and takes the usual time for repairing. The only differences between it and the stag is, that this change happens later in the buck; and its rutting time consequently falls most into the winter. It is not found so furious at this season as the former; nor does it so much exhaust itself by the violence of

its ardour. It does not quit its natural pastures in quest of the female, nor does it attack other animals with indiscriminate ferocity; however, the males combat for the female among each other; and it is not without many contests that one buck is seen to become master of the whole herd It often happens, also, that a herd of fallow deer is seen to divide into two parties, and engage each other with great ardour and obstinacy. They both seem desirous of gaining some favourite spot of the park for pasture, and of driving the vanquished party into the coarser and more disagreeable parts. Each of these factions has its particular chief; namely, the two oldest and strongest of the herd. These lead on to the engagement; and the rest follow under their direction. These combats are singular enough, from the disposition and conduct which seems to regulate their mutual efforts. They attack with order, and support the assault with courage; they come to each other's assistance; they retire, they rally, and never give up the victory upon a single defeat. The combat is renewed for several days together; until at length the most feeble side is obliged to give way, and is content to escape to the most disagreeable part of the park, where only they can find safety and protection.

The fallow-deer is easily tamed, and feeds upon many things which the stag refuses. By this means it preserves its venison better; and even after rutting it does not appear entirely exhausted. It continues almost in the same state through the whole year, although there are particular seasons when its flesh is chiefly in esteem. This animal also browzes closer than the stag; for which reason it is more prejudicial among young trees, which it often strips too close for recovery. The young deer eat much faster and more greedily than the old; they seek the female at their second year, and, like the stag, are fond of variety. The deer goes with young above eight months, like the hind, and commouly brings forth one at a time; but they differ in this, that the buck comes to perfection at three and lives till sixteen; whereas the stag does not come to perfection till seven, and lives till forty.

As this animal is a beast of chase, like the stag, so the hunters have invented a number of names relative to him. The buck is the first year called a fawn; the second, a pricket; the third, a sorel; the fourth, a sore; the fifth, a buck of the first head; and the sixth, a great bucky. The female is called a doe; the first year, a fawn; and the second, a tegg. The manner of hunting the buck is pretty much the same as stag-hunting, except that less skill is required in the latter. The buck is more easily roused; it is sufficient to judge by the view, and mark what grove or covert it enters as it is not known to wander far from thence, nor, like the stag, to change its layer or place of repose. When severely hunted, it takes to some strong-hold or covert with which it is acquainted in the more gloomy parts of the wood or the steeps of the mountain-not like the stag, flying before the hounds, nor crossing nor doubling, nor using any of the subtleties which the stag is accustomed to. It will take the water when sorely pressed, but seldom a great river; nor can it swim so long nor so swiftly as the former. In general, the strength, the cunning, and the courage of this animal are inferior to those of the stag; consequently it affords neither so long, so various, nor so obstinate a chase; besides, being lighter and not tracing so deeply, it leaves a less powerful and lasting scent, and the dogs in the pursuit are frequently at fault.

As the buck is a more delicate animal than the stag, so also it is subject to greater varieties. We have in England two varieties of the fallow deer, which are said to be of foreign origin-the beautiful spotted kind, which is supposed to have been brought from Bengal; and the very deep brown sort, that are now so common in several parts of this kingdom. These were introduced by King

James the First from Norway; for, having observed their hardiness, and that they could endure the winter even in that severe climate without fodder, he brought over some of them into Scotland, and disposed of them among his chases. Since that time they have multiplied in many parts of the British empire; and England is now become more famous for its venison than any other country in the world. Whatever pains the French have taken to rival us in this particular, the flesh of their fallow deer, of which they have but few, has neither the fatness nor the flavour of that fed upon English pasture. However, there is scarce a country in Europe, except far to the northward, in which this animal is a stranger. The Spanish fallow deer are as large as stags, but of a darker colour and a more slender neck: their tails are longer than those of ours-they are black above and white below. The Virginian deer are larger and stronger than ours, with great necks, and their colour inclinable to grey. Other kinds have the hoofs of their hind-legs marked outwardly with a white spot, and their ears and tails much longer than the common. One of these has been seen full of white spots, with a black list down the middle of his back. In Guiana, a country of South America, according to Labat, there are deer without horns, which are much less than those of Europe, but resembling them in every other particular. They are very lively, light of course, and excessively fearful; their hair is of a redish fallow, their heads are small and lean, their ears little, their necks long and arched, the tail short, and the sight piercing. When pursued, they fly into places where no other animal can follow them. The Negroes who pursue them stand to watch for them in narrow paths which lead to the brook or the meadow where they feed, waiting in the utmost silence, for the slightest sound will drive them away; the Negro, when he perceives the animal within reach, shoots, and is happy if he can bring down his game. Their flesh, though seldom fat, is considered as a great delicacy, and the hunter is well rewarded for his trouble.

THE ROEBUCK.-The roebuck is the smallest of the deer kind known in our climate, and is now almost extinct among us, except in some parts of the Highlands of Scotland. It is generally about three feet long, and about two feet high. The horns are from eight to nine inches long, upright, round, and divided into only three branches. The body is covered with very long hair, well adapted to the rigour of its mountainous abode. The lower part of each hair is ash colour; near the ends is a narrow bar of black, and the points are yellow. The hairs on the face are black, tipped with ash colour. The ears are long, their insides of a pale yellow, and covered with long hair. The spaces bordering on the eyes and mouth are black. The chest, belly, and legs, and the inside of the thighs, are of a yellowish white; the rump is of a pure white, and the tail very short. The make of this little animal is very elegant; and its swiftness equals its beauty. It differs from the fallow-deer in having round horns, and not flatted like theirs. It differs from the stag in its smaller size, and the proportionable paucity of its antlers: and it differs from all of the goat kind, as it annually sheds its horns, and obtains new ones, which none of that kind are ever seen to do.

As the stag frequents the thickest forests and the sides of the highest mountains, the roebuck, with humbler ambition, courts the shady thicket and the rising slope. Although less in size and far inferior in strength to the stag, it is yet more beautiful, more active, and even more courageous. Its hair is always smooth, clean, and glossy; and it frequents only the driest places and inhales the purest air. Though but a very little animal, as we have already observed, yet when its young is attacked it faces even the stag himself, and often comes off victorious All its motions are elegant and easy; it bounds without effort, and continues the course with but little fatigue.

It is also possessed of more cunning in avoiding the hunter, is more difficult to pursue, and although its scent is much stronger than that of the stag, it is more frequently found to make a good retreat. It is not with the roebuck as with the stag, who never offers to use art until his strength is beginning to decline; this more canning animal, when it finds that its first efforts to escape are without success, returns upon its former track, again goes forward and again returns, until by its various windings it has entirely confounded the scent, and joined the last emanations to those of its former course. It then by a bound goes to one side, lies flat upon its belly, and permits the pack to pass by very near without offering to stir.

But the roebuck differs not only from the stag in superior cunning, but also in its natural appetites, its inclinations, and its whole habits of living. Instead of herding together, these animals live in separate families; the sire, the dam, and the young ones associate together, and never admit a stranger into their little community. All others of the deer kind are inconstant in their affection; but the roebuck never leaves its mate; and, as they have been generally bred up together from their first fawning, they conceive so strong an attachment the male for the female that they never after separate. Their rutting season continues but fifteen days from the latter end of October to about the middle of November. They are not at that time, like the stag, overloaded with fat; they have not that strong odour which is perceived in all others of the deer kind; they have none of those furious excesses-nothing, in short, that alters their state they only drive away their fawns upon these occasions the buck forcing them to retire in order to make room for a succeeding progeny; however, when the copulating season is over the fawns return to their does, and remain with them some time longer; after which they quit them entirely, in order to begin an independent family of their own. The female goes with young but five months and a half, which alone serves to distinguish this animal from all others of the deer kind that continue pregnant more than eight. In this respect she approaches more nearly to the goat kind; from which, however, this race is separated by the male's annually casting its horns.

When the female is ready to bring forth she seeks a retreat in the thickest parts of the woods, being not less apprehensive of the buck, from whom she then separates, than of the woif, the wild cat, and almost every ravenous animal of the forest; she generally produces two at a time, and three but very rarely. In about ten or twelve days these are able to follow their dam, except in cases of warm pursuit, when their strength is not equal to the fatigue. Upon such occasions the tenderness of the dam is very extraordinary; leaving them in the deepest thickets, she offers herself to the danger, flies before the hounds, and does all in her power to lead them from the retreat where she has lodged her little ones. Such animals as are nearly upon her own level she boldly encounters; attacks the stag, the wild cat, and even the wolf; and while she has life continues her efforts to protect her young. Yet all her endeavours are often vain; about the month of May, which is her fawning time, there is a greater destruction among those animals than at any other season of the year. Numbers of fawns are taken alive by the peasants; numbers are found out and worried by the dogs; and still more by the wolf, which has always been their most inveterate enemy. By these continual depredations upon this beautiful creature the roebuck is every day becoming scarcer; and the whole race in many countries is wholly worn out. They were once common in England; the huntsmen, who characterised only such beasts as they knew, have given names to the different kinds and ages as to the stag: thus they call it the first year the hind, the second a gyrle, and the third a hemuse; but these names

at present are utterly useless, since the animal no longer exists among us. Even in France, where it was once extremely common, it is now confined to a few provinces; and it is probable that in an age or two the whole breed will be utterly extirpated. Mr. Buffon, indeed, observes that in those districts where it is mostly found it seems to maintain its usual plenty, and that the balance between its destruction and increase is held pretty even ; however, the number in general is known to decrease; for wherever cultivation takes place the beasts of Nature are known to retire. Many animals that once flourished in the world may now be extinct; and the descriptions of Aristotle and Pliny, though taken from life, may be considered as fabulous, as their archetypes are no longer existing.

The fawns continue to follow the deer eight or nine months in all; and upon separating their horns begin to appear-simple and without antlers the first year, as in those of the stag kind. These they shed at the latter end of autumn, and renew during the winter-differing in this from the stag, who sheds them in spring and renews them in summer. When the roebuck's head is completely furnished it rubs its horns against trees in the manner of the stag, and thus strips them of the rough skin and the blood-vessels, which no longer contribute to their nourishment and growth. When these fall and new ones begin to appear, the roebuck does not retire like the stag to the covert of the wood, but continues its usual haunts, only keeping down its head to avoid striking its horns against the branches of trees, the pain of which it seems to feel with exquisite sensibility. The stag, who sheds his horns in summer, is obliged to seek a retreat from the flies, which at that time greatly incommode him; but the roebuck, who sheds them in winter, is under no such necessity, and consequently does not separate from his little family, but keeps with the female all the year round.

As the growth of the roebuck and its arrival at maturity are much speedier than that of the stag, so its life is proportionably shorter. It seldom is found to extend above twelve or fifteen years; and if kept tame it does not live above six or seven. It is an animal of a very delicate constitution, requiring variety of food, air, and exercise. It must be paired with a female, and kept in a park of at least a hundred acres. They may easily be subdued, but never thoroughly tamed. No arts can teach them to be on familiar terms with the feeder, much less attached to him. They still preserve a part of their natural wildness, and are subject to terrors without a cause. They sometimes, in attempting to escape, strike themselves with such force against the walls of their inclosure, that they break their limbs and become quite disabled. Whatever care is taken to tame them they are never entirely to be relied on, as they have capricious fits of fierceness, and sometimes strike at those they dislike with a degree of force that is very dangerous.

The cry of the roebuck is neither so loud nor so frequent as that of the stag. The young ones have a particular manner of calling to the dam, which the hunters easily imitate, and often thus allure the female to her destruction. On some occasions, also, they become in a manner intoxicated with their food, which during the spring is said to ferment in their stomachs, and they are then very easily taken. In summer they keep close under covert of the forest, and seldom venture out, except in violent heats, to drink at some river or fountain. In general, however, they are contented to slake their thirst with the dew that falls on the grass and on the leaves of trees, and seldom risk their safety to satisfy their appetite. They delight chiefly in hilly grounds, preferring the tender branches and buds of trees to corn or other vegetables; and it is universally allowed that the flesh of those between one and two years old is the greatest delicacy known. Perhaps its scarceness also enhances its flavour.