"The stag's mouth is open because he is big and fat and is blowing (not roaring or bellowing). If it was the rutting season, when stags roar, the stag would be tucked up in the belly and have a tuft of hair hanging under the middle of it. He and the stag in front are moving in the real action (not the conventional action Rosa Bonheur and Landseer drew, but what the ancient Egyptians drew sometimes) of a slow, easy canter.... Now as to the middle stag's horns. I should give him, bearing in mind he is the small sentry stag, brow, tray, and three on top–a ten-pointer, the thin points showing in the original drawing indicating that he had thin horns–in fact, a three-year old. "In a Scotch forest a ten-pointer is a comparatively old stag, but at Warnham and my place, where the feeding is good (and in my case there is hand feeding all the year round), a spike stag gets six points and can almost be a royal the next year. "All this shows that the deer at the time this drawing was made must have had very good feeding and come to maturity quickly, like modern park deer. The big stag would never have allowed a ten-pointer in his herd if the latter had been an old stag. "As to the action of the leading hind. I think she is a hind-calf by her legs, and is jumping with all four legs together, the way young deer do when playing, and, being young, is paying no attention to the danger behind, but is full of life, like a horse playing about when he is fresh. One often sees the calves of a herd playing like this if the herd is moving along steadily.... "From the position of the hind legs of the little calf I judge that she is jumping with all four legs together (the jump from which the expression 'buck jumping' comes); her tail would be curled up tight over her back like a pug dog carries it, only without the curl, and her ears pricked forward. The piece of horn broken off would show the rest of the hinds and calves, led by an old 'yeld' (_i.e._, barren) hind, who would be leading the herd up wind with her nose and ears forward to 'get the wind' of any danger ahead. "The day is a hot one in the middle of August, shown by the big stag blowing and his being with the hinds, instead of with other stags by themselves, and by his not having 'run' yet, though his horns are clear of velvet. He is most likely the stag on whose horn this is engraved. The length of the deer's feet shows that they live on ground which is soft and not many stones about to wear down their toes. "Maybe the fish indicate that the deer are crossing a shallow ford, and the salmon are getting frightened and jumping. The right-hand-most fish is just in the attitude of a hooked salmon trying to leap clear of the fly....