a forest scene that he had witnessed a short time before. In the foreground was a nice
lot o f those thumping stags he knew so well how to depict. They were all comfortably
feeding, and the stalkers coming down the hill-side in the background seemed to have it
all their own way, but for one old hind in the centre o f the picture, whose suspicions
were keenly aroused, and who, i f she gave the alarm, would carry off with her in a trice
all those fat harts. Everything seemed right in the picture, but Sir Edwin, who believed
much in local expert criticism, called for Donald, one of the stalkers, a man o f strong
individuality and caustic humour. Donald then came into the hall and began to stalk
that picture. His experienced eye grasped the situation at once. A t the first glance
he saw the point o f danger, and then, like a good stalker, he examined every nook and cranny
in the landscape where another outlying beast might possibly be found equally threatening
to spoil the sport. He took such a time over this that Sir Edwin at last pulled him up,
asking what he thought o f the picture, upon which Donald marched up in front o f the
central point o f interest and, shaking his
fist fiercely in the face o f the old lady on
guard, hissed, “ Yon auld deilf^l a hind,
she’s jist putten’ her noo-as into the air
to see what she can hear ”=— as pretty a hash
o f idioms as one could well desire.
The cunning o f a stag is considerable,
particularly when he has reached his
prime. By that time he has learned to
gauge degrees o f danger, and knows something
o f the habits o f man— his protector
and his slayer. Look, for instance, at the
way in which he turns to his own - advantag
e the eyes and ears o f some younger male
o f his own race. Like other creatures one could mention, he knows the luxury o f a “ fag,” and
takes care to furnish himself w ith one as soon as may be. No one who has watched one of
these cunning old fellows enjoying the maximum o f food and rest with a minimum o f danger
can fail to be struck with the reasoning power o f an animal who can thus appropriate the senses
o f another and make him feel the truth o f the proverb “ Might is right.” During the time
that his lord is feeding the fag has to keep incessantly on the watch, or he will quickly be
recalled to a sense o f his duties in a way he is not likely to forget. A gentleman who
hunts regularly with the Devon and Somerset staghounds told me that on one occasion he
was posted at . the top o f a wood about to be drawn, in which had been harboured a big
stag and his fag. He saw the stag and the brocket started by the tufters in the middle of
the wood, and they galloped up the hill towards him. Then, just as both appeared to be
on the point o f breaking cover, the big stag drove the brocket out o f the wood, and without
showing himself on the outskirts, suddenly plunged back into the cover in front o f the
hounds, which were now in full cry, and was seen by another huntsman to go and lie down
in the bed just vacated by the fag. There is no doubt these old stags are in the habit o f
using their fags as scapegoats.