The CALF, when once it is of strength sufficient to accompany its dam, never leaves her side during the first summer; and the ensuing winter, none but the HINDS, and males under a year old, remain together; the annual separation between the STAGS and HINDS invariably taking place as before described. During the months of infancy, the courage of the dam, in defence of her offspring, is equal to any maternal affection of our own species; she opposes every force, encounters every enemy, exposes herself to every danger, and hazards her own life to insure the safety of her young. The hind has but little protection upon the score of self-preservation, nature having left her without horns, those useful and ornamental weapons with which the stag is so powerfully armed. The first year the male has no horns; the second they are straight, and single; the third, they shew two branches; the fourth, three; the fifth, four; and the sixth, five; when the stag is reckoned complete, and at his full growth: notwithstanding this, the antlers continue to increase till there are six or seven on each side; and though the age of the deer is mostly ascertained by the number, yet it is not always certain, but is more nicely to be depended on from the thickness and size of the trunk or body by which they are sustained.
These horns, enormous as they appear, are shed annually, which happens in the latter end of February, or during the month of March; of which there is a most perfect regeneration before the commencement of the RUTTING TIME, when they fight for the hind with the most determined and incredible ferocity. After the season of rutting, the stags having been found too weak to stand long before the hounds, the operation of castration was adopted; and the stag thus deprived of the means of propagation, (by the loss of the testes,) feeling no stimulative propensity to copulate, is never debilitated, but always ready for the field, and affords runs of great duration. Thus operated upon, they are then called HEAVIERS; and it is a remarkable fact, that if a stag is castrated while his horns (alias antlers) are in a state of perfection, they will never exfoliate: on the contrary, if the operation is performed when the head is bare, the horns will never return.
STAG
,—the sporting term for a young GAME COCK during his second year. For the whole of the first year, he is called a chicken; from which time to the completion of the second, he is a STAG; and from thence forward, a COCK. In regular matches and mains for considerable sums of money, very few are brought to Pit before they are of that age; unless it is made, and so agreed on both sides, in which case it is called a stag main, or main of stags. See Cocking, Game Cock, and Cock-pit Royal.
STAG-EVIL
—is a disorder of the most distressing kind, to which horses of the draught kind are more particularly subject: it partakes of the paralytic stroke and spasmodic affection, coming on suddenly, without the least previous indication of approaching disease. The muscles become so instantaneously contracted, that the head is raised to its utmost heigth, the jaws are fixed, the neck stiff and immoveable, the eyes are turned upwards, leaving only the whites to be seen; the palpitations of the heart are exceedingly violent, and the laborious heavings of the flank incessant. This disorder, difficult as it is in its cause to define, is always more or less dangerous, in proportion to the mildness or severity of the attack. If it proceeds from a profuse flux of blood to the BRAIN, in consequence of too great and powerful exertions, plentiful bleeding, and nervous stimulants, will be the most expeditious and likely means to relieve.
When its symptoms are so exceedingly severe and alarming, that the jaws are locked, and no medicines can be administered by the MOUTH, recourse must be had to collateral aids. Strong hot fomentations, with a decoction from the most fragrant aromatic garden herbs, under the jaws, behind the ears, and both sides the throat, followed by fumigations from myrrh, ammoniacum, and assafœtida, grossly powdered, and sprinkled upon a hot iron, or fire-shovel, held below the nostrils; glysters of gruel, in which valerian root has been boiled, and assafœtida dissolved, with an addition of liquid laudanum and olive oil to each, and repeatedly frequently; are the only means, properly persevered in, that can afford any hope or expectation of success. These exertions are in general too much trouble for the lower order of the Veterinary tribe, who fly to their favourite and contemptible introduction of a ROWEL, many hours before which can become productive in its effect, death closes the scene, and relieves the subject from its accumulated misery.
STAGGERS
.—This is likewise a disorder of the head, to which horses of the same description are constantly liable, bearing in many respects no distant affinity to the former; for although it cannot be deemed the very same disease, yet, as it is known to derive its origin from the same cause, it is evidently entitled to rank in the same class. Bracken, who speaks of it with more scientific and professional precision than any writer before or since, assimilates it to the apoplexy and epilepsy of the human frame, and enters into an anatomical disquisition of many pages to justify his opinion. He most judiciously attributes it to its proper and only cause, a plethoric state of the body; and that by the preternatural distension of all the vessels, the blood is more forcibly propelled upon the brain, from whence inflammation (in a greater or less degree) consequently ensues; making the following remark, to which every experienced practitioner will yield his unqualified approbation.
"That where one creature dies of a distempered brain from the loss of too much blood, there are twenty lives lost for want of taking away a sufficient quantity." In direct conformity with the opinion of Bracken upon the subject of REPLETION, may be quoted a plain and true, but less scientific remark of Captain Burdon, in his Pocket Farrier; who, for want of more polished terms, and technical phraseology, thus expresses himself: "Don't let your horse stand too long without exercise; it fills his belly too full of meat, and his veins too full of blood; and from hence the staggers, and many other distempers, proceed."