eir great
numbers are thought to be very prejudicial, and therefore justly reproved
of many, as are in like sort our huge flocks of sheep, whereon the
greatest part of our soil is employed almost in every place, and yet our
mutton, wool, and felles never the better cheap. The young males which our
fallow deer do bring forth are commonly named according to their several
ages: for the first year it is a fawn, the second a puckot, the third a
serell,[187] the fourth a soare, the fifth a buck of the first head, not
bearing the name of a buck till he be five years old: and from henceforth
his age is commonly known by his head or horns. Howbeit this notice of his
years is not so certain but that the best woodman may now and then be
deceived in that account: for in some grounds a buck of the first head
will be as well headed as another in a high rowtie soil will be in the
fourth. It is also much to be marvelled at that, whereas they do yearly
mew and cast their horns, yet in fighting they never break off where they
do grife or mew. Furthermore, in examining the condition of our red deer,
I find that the young male is called in the first year a calf, in the
second a broket, the third a spay, the fourth a staggon or stag, the fifth
a great stag, the sixth a hart, and so forth unto his death. And with him
in degree of venerie are accounted the hare, boar, and wolf. The fallow
deer, as bucks and does, are nourished in parks, and conies in warrens and
burrows. As for hares, they run at their own adventure, except some
gentleman or other (for his pleasure) do make an enclosure for them. Of
these also the stag is accounted for the most noble game, the fallow deer
is the next, then the roe, whereof we have indifferent store, and last of
all the hare, not the least in estimation, because the hunting of that
seely beast is mother to all the terms, blasts, and artificial devices
that hunters do use. All which (notwithstanding our custom) are pastimes
more meet for ladies and gentlewomen to exercise (whatsoever Franciscus
Patritius saith to the contrary in his _Institution of a Prince_) than for
men of courage to follow, whose hunting should practise their arms in
tasting of their manhood, and dealing with such beasts as eftsoons will
turn again and offer them the hardest, rather than their horses' feet
which many times may carry them with dishonour from the field.[188]

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If I should go about to ma