Buffon's Natural History. Volume 06 (of 10): Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &cBuffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de
History
Buffon's Natural History. Volume 06 (of 10): Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &c
Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de
Natural history
I have also received information of a fact from M. le Marquis
d'Amazaga, that merits being noticed in the history of the stag. We
have already observed that their horns begin to acquire the form and
existence, which they retain for the remainder of the year, at the
beginning of August, and after noticing this fact he proceeds in the
relation, "that on the 17th of October the attendants of the Prince
of Condé chaced a stag six years old, and it being the rutting season
they were greatly surprised at the swiftness of his pace and the
distance he led them, which was full six leagues from his harbour; and
this surprise received no small addition when he was taken, by his
horns appearing white and sprinkled with blood, as they are at the
season when they rub them against the trees; and it was evident, on
his being opened, from the situation of his interior parts, that he
had never experienced the effects of the rut, and as he had not been
in a condition for rutting he was as loaded with fat as though it had
been the month of June, July, or August. Besides this he had another
singularity; his right foot wanted the middle bone, and which in the
left was at least half an inch long, large, and pointed. As the stag,
if he be castrated when he has no horns, never acquires any after, or
never loses them if performed when his horns are in perfection, it
is but reasonable to suppose that they were retarded, in the present
instance, from the imbecility of his organs, but which however were
sufficient to effect the fall and renewal of his horns, as it was
evident when he was killed that he had had horns annually from the
second to the sixth year." These observations strongly prove the
justness of our former remarks upon the renovation of the horns of the
stag.
In remarking on the Norwegian stags, Pontoppidan says, "they are only
in the dioceses of Bergen and Drontheim, and that they have been seen
to swim in numbers across the straits, from the continent to the
adjacent islands, resting their heads upon each other's cruppers, and
when those who lead are fatigued they retire behind, and the most
vigorous take their places."
Some attempts have been made to render our stags domestic, by treating
them with the same gentleness as the Laplanders do their rein-deer;
upon which subject M. le Vicomte de Querhoënt has informed me of the
following fact: "The Portuguese first brought stags to the Isle of
France, and although they took their origin from those of Europe, they
were small and their colour grey; there were great numbers of them upon
the island when the French took possession of it; they destroyed many
of them, but a great proportion secured themselves in the most retired
places; these by degrees have become quite domestic, and some of the
inhabitants keep them in large flocks."
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