STAG, or RED DEER, Cerms elephas, a species of deer (q.v.) with rouna antlers, which have a snag at the base in front. The female has no horns, and is called a hind. The young male during the first year acquires mere knobs in place of horns. In the second year they are longer and pointed, when the animal is called a broad. The branching of the horns increases every year till the sixth, when the name hart (q.v.) begins to be applied. After this the age is no longer indicated by an increased number of branches, but the antlers become larger and thicker, their furrows deeper, and the burr at the base more projecting. The oldest stags have seldom more than 0 or 12 litanches, although an instance has occurred of 33 on each antler. A fine stag is 4 ft. or more. in height at the shoulder. 'The color is reddish brown iu summer, the rump pale; in winter it is brownish gray. The female is smaller than the male. The young is at first spotted with white. The stag is a native of Europe and the north of Asia. It was anciently common in all parts of Britain, but is now almost extinct except m the High lands ef Scotland, where large herds still exist, particularly on the Grampians, and the sport of deer-stalking is pursued, in which the rifle is now generally used; although in times the stag was hunted, hounds of a peculiar breed called staghounds (q.v.)
being employed for the purpose. The forest laws of Englaul were extremely strict for the preservation of this noble game. the unauthorized killing of a stag being even a more unpardonable offense than the killing of a man. The stag feeds on the buds and young shouts of trees and on grass, or in the severe weather of winter on bark and mosses. The speed of the stag is very great. It has also great powers of swimming, and has been known to swim 10 miles. When hard pressed by hunters it turns to bay, and is not approached without danger. At the pairing season, which is in August, even tame stags become so excited that it is not safe to approach them. The domestication of the stag is never very complete. In fighting the stag uses not only its horns, but its fore-feet, with which it gives severe blows to an adversary. The flusu of the slag is not " so good as that of the fallow deer.—Among the species of deer most nearly allied to the stag are, the wapiti (q.v.), an American species; and -several species belonging to the warmer parts of Asia and the north of Africa. They all have round branched antlers, with a basal snag in front, and a tuft of hair on the hind legs above the middle of the metatarsus.