Stag

Stag is the term for the male of the Red Deer (q.v.). In Scotland the pursuit of the stag is mainly by deer-stalking, a long and laborious approach on foot allowing at best a chance of a rifle shot at the deer from a place of concealment. In England wild red deer are still hunted on horseback on Exmoor. The hounds are like foxhounds (see BUCKHOUNDS), and a good run may extend to 20 or 30 miles. The hunting season is 12th August—8th October, and 25th March—10th May. Elsewhere deer-hunting is the hunting of carted deer (usually fallow-deer) let loose from a van, the hounds being set on a quarter of an hour later. See DEER FORESTS, EXMOOR FOREST (and works there cited); Hunting, in the 'Badminton Library' (1885); and Fortescue's Records of Stag-hunting on Exmoor (1887).