Then
in any of these cases, hand-out becomes hand-in and serves in his turn. 10. It shall be a let, and the service or rally shall count for nothing, and the server shall serve again from the same box: (a) If the ball inplay touch the striker's opponent on, or above the knee, and (in the marker's opinion) is thereby prevented from reaching the front wall above the board; or (b) If either player (in the marker's opinion) undesignedly prevent his opponent from returning the ball served or in-play. 11. The ball served or in-play may be returned by the striker's opponent at the volley, or after it has touched the floor once, but not after it has touched the floor a second time. 12. Each player must get out of his opponent's 1 That is, the short-line and the half-court line. [RACKETS way as much as possible; if either player claim that his opponent prevented him from returning the ball served or in-play the marker shall decide whether it shall be a let or not. (Subject to provisions of Law 14.) 13. The game is 15 up; that is, the player who first scores 15 aces wins the game, provided that: (a) At the score of 13 all, hand-out may "set" the game to 5 or to 3, and (b) At the score of 14 all, hand-out may set the game to 3-that is, in the first case (A) The player who first scores 5 (or 3) aces according as the game was set wins the game, and in the second case (B) The player who first scores 3 aces wins the game.
Note-In either case the claim to "set" must be made by hand-out before the next service shall have been delivered. 14. In all cases the marker's decision shall be final; but if he doubt which way to decide he shall direct that the ace be played over again.
In matches when there are umpires and a referee appointed, the marker's decision shall be final on all questions relating to the service; but (when in doubt) he shall refer all other questions to the umpires and referee; and either player may appeal to them from any decision of the marker except as to any service; and they shall decide each case by a majority of votes. All appeals must be made before another service shall have been delivered.
The Double, or Four-handed Game.
I. The laws of the Single Game (as above) shall apply to the Double, or Four-handed Game, except as set forth in the following laws. 2. Only one of the side which has won the spin shall serve at the first time of being hand-in, in any game; at all subsequent times, the players on each side shall serve in the same order in which they began serving. 3. One player on the hand-out side may stand where he pleases to receive the service; but his partner and the server's partner must stand behind the server until the service has been delivered. 4. If the ball served touch the server's partner before touching the floor twice, whether it was, or would have been, a fault or not, the server shall lose his right of service, and the next handin shall serve. 5. The players on the hand-out side may choose the order in which they shall receive the service and they shall adhere to that order, and shall only change it once in any game or at the end of any game of a rubber. 6. If the ball in-play touch the striker's partner, it shall count against them; that is if the striker was hand-out, the other side shall score an ace; if he was hand-in his side shall lose one hand-in; except in case the ball in-play touch the striker's partner after it has been hit at and missed by one of their opponents, when it shall count against such opponents; that is, if they were hand-out the other side shall score an ace; if they were hand-in, they shall lose one hand-in.
RATTING. Every sportsman has probably indulged in "ratting" at some time or other. The period of this indulgence is usually that which immediately precedes his "first gun"-in fact, before he would be safe with that much-desired weapon.
Having the right instinct, he usually cleaves to rat-catching because the possibilities are within his grasp. If he can command a blue-blooded terrier, a ferret warranted not to "lay up," and a cutting-tool, well and RATTING] good; but if he cannot, he knows someone who has a "game," broken-bred, brokenhaired terrier as hard as nails-the village poacher is always good for a ferret-and a discarded garden spade must take the place of the more artistic implement. For these three things are the essentials in ratting. The picturesque professional ratcatcher has gone out, and the gentleman amateur must take his place. If anyone retort that ratting is not sport, I can only reply that one of the best sportsmen living has told me that he would prefer being a rat-catcher to being a bishop. Rats are often veritable plague, and the only greater abomination than a live rat is a dead one-especially in a house where it can neither be located nor got at. No doubt rats serve some good purpose, but from our present standpoint they exist to be got rid of. There are only three effective ways of doing this by encouraging owls, by cats, and by ratting. Owls can be induced to come about any dwelling or farmstead, and they are the best ratters that exist. They are effective and provide sport for themselves but not for us. And for rats to be worthy of our attention they must provide sport. a They are usually found by the sides of rivers, among haystacks and in old buildings, in the rickyards, in drains, and especially on stubbles bordering streams. In summer and autumn they mainly patronise the open; but when the land is cleared, and the first frosts have cut down the cover, they make for the buildings. At least this is what the common Brown Rat (Mus decumanus) does, but the Water Vole (Arvicola amphibius), often called the Water Rat and hunted as such, sticks to its sylvan retreat the whole year round. (The Black rat-Mus rattus is now practically extinct, so we need take no account of him.) Ferrets are the most important part of the ratter's outfit, and to face a big day's ratting they should be strong and well nourished; and it is needless to say that they should not be fed on the day they are to be taken out. Always carry your ferrets in a strong canvas bag, which, for protection, may in turn be carried in an old gamebag. For rats, as opposed to rabbits, bitch ferrets are preferable to dogs. The former are only about half the size of the latter, and can follow a rat anywhere. Imitate the poacher, and never run a dark polecat ferret when you can command a white one.
Besides, an indiscreet terrier is much more likely to snap up the brown animal by mistake than a white one. Never, of course, muzzle a ferret when ratting, nor handicap it by running it with a line. And a ferret bell is equally useless. It has quite enough to do to defend itself and drive the vermin. Always have plenty of resource in ferrets. They get badly bitten, and it is unwise to allow them to get too much punished. Run them in turn, and not too long. The shorter they run, the harder they drive, and the more sport is provided.
They should always be attended to when the day is done, and have their wounds dressed with sweet oil. A rat's bite is poisonous, and dressing will prevent festering. [See also FERRETS.] The best kind of spade for ratting is one that is strong and light. The blade should be of the best tempered steel, so that it will cut easily through roots. It is a convenience if the spade has a spike at one end for following holes and finding the direction of runs in soft banks.
It is unnecessary to say much about dogs.
For ratting, terriers are far the best, roughcoated fox-terriers for preference. To be worthy of the name, terriers should be small, compact, quick, "game," and have good noses. They should, of course, be able to find rats. Once a reliable dog has "marked," it is interesting to watch how cutely the rest find and mark the bolt-holes.
A good terrier may, of course, be of any colour. I have known several of very mixed hue and lineage that were splendid ratters.
In ferreting a stack or rick, it will invariably be found that the rats have made well defined runs, and unless these are stopped the sport will be poor, as the rats will not be forced to the ground. And until they are, the dogs can do nothing. To compel the vermin to leave the stack, it is necessary to cut off their runs. This may be effectively done by placing pieces of board across them, and it is the only way to prevent the rats running in circles and thus baffling the ferrets.
Shooting rats on a stack is not effective, and it is not strictly "ratting." Good sport may often be had with a single terrier along the banks of a stream or river where rats are accustomed to harbour in roots. I have had terriers, one in particular, which would bay them out, and once in the water their existence was short. In hunting rats in the water, often a good deal of time is lost in getting a dog to see the rat. When this is the case, instantly seize the dog and lift it well up. From this vantage it will immediately see the rat, and will dive after it in a moment.
This is not the place to mention the numerous ingenious traps which are used for circumventing rats, but I cannot resist the temptation to give a recipe "To find a dead rat." Go to the butcher's and catch a dozen IO blue-bottles. Slip them into a glass jar, tying a bit of rag over the mouth. Proceed to the room where the smell is, shut the door behind you, and let loose your pack of flies. They will go buzzing round and round, but after a time will all settle on the self-same spot. Under that particular spot-to an inch is the dead rat.
JOHN WATSON.
RED DEER. (Cervus elaphus); A.S. deor; G. thier; Sw. djur; Dan. dyr; Gk. θήρ ; Lat. fera, all of which names in their original sense signified a wild beast, and applied to all sorts of animals, those of the deer tribe being particularised as stag (of Scandinavian origin), Fr. cerf; It. cerfo; Sp. cervo; Lat. cervus. In modern German RED STAG. the red deer is known as hirsch or edel hirsch (noble or royal stag), to distinguish it above all its fellows.
Classification. - The red deer is the typical member of a group which comprises several species and varieties which are widely distributed over Europe, Asia, North Africa, and North America. All these representative forms agree in the general character of the antlers, which are cylindrical, rough, in this respect unlike the smooth horns of the reindeer and the palmated horns of the fallow deer-though a tendency to palmation is sometimes observable-having, as a rule, three anterior tines (brow, bez or bay, and trez or tray), with two, three, or more points on top, in the adult animal. Sir William Flower has stated (Introduction to Study of Mammals, p. 321) that "the elaphine or typical group is at once characterised by the presence of a bez tine to the antlers"; but so many [RATTING exceptions to this have been noted, particularly amongst the deer of the Scottish Highlands and the West of England, that this characteristic cannot be relied upon as diagnostic. Moreover, the red deer of different European countries (the British Islands, Norway, France, Spain, Germany, Hungary, and the Carpathians), as well as those found in Asia Minor, ¹ Transcaucasia, and North China (Cervus xanthopygius, David), and the so-called Barbary stag of North Africa, are all so closely allied, and are subject to such variation, that it is doubtful whether they can be regarded as anything more than mere geographical races of one widely distributed species, Cervus elaphus. We need not here consider the Persian Maral, the Shou or great stag of Sikkim and Thibet (Cervus affinis), standing sometimes fifteen hands, and closely approaching the American Wapiti, the Indian Sambur (Cervus aristotelis), the Burmese stag (Cervus eldi), or Schomburgk's deer from the northern parts of Siam; because all these species, though closely related to the typical red deer in size, form, and colour, may be differentiated almost at a glance by the peculiar shape of the antlers and disposition or arrangement of the tines; and although, possibly, sprung from one ancestral form, they have become by geographical separation in the lapse of ages sufficiently differentiated as to be easily recognisable.
Description. The familiar name Red Deer is, of course, derived from its colour, which during the breeding season is a rich rufous brown, turning grey at the approach of winter. A white or yellowish-white variety is known, of which there is a small herd in Welbeck Park, as described in The Field, 18th July, 1891. The male is called a stag (formerly a hart), the female a hind, and the young a calf.4 The young, spotted with white, are born in May or the first week of June, the rutting season taking place in September and October, and the period of gestation being eight months. Exceptionally during or immediately after a mild, open winter, hinds (and fallow does also) are sought by the 1 Several important letters on the red deer and fallow deer of Asia Minor will be found in The Field of 1895, March 9 and 30, April 6 and 27, May 18, and June I and 29. See also E. N.
Buxton, Short Stalks, 1892, pp. 279-322. 2 For the remarks on the validity of this species see Lvdekker, Hoofs and Horns (1893). p. 272. 3 See important papers by the late Sir Victor Brooke on the classification of the Cervida, Proc.
Zool. Soc., 1878, pp. 883-928, and by Mr. A.
Gordon Cameron on the value of antlers in the classification of deer, The Field, 1894-5.
With fallow deer the male is a buck, the female a doe, and the young a fawn.
RED DEER] stag, and calves and fawns are dropped in autumn. Several such instances have been reported in The Field, the dates being October 21st, November 4th, 18th, 26th, and 28th. Three instances are on record of fawns in December, namely, on the 7th, 8th, and 16th of that month.
Measurements. A full-grown stag will stand 4 feet high at the withers, and the antlers when fully developed will have brow, bay, and tray tines, with three on top. It is then known to deer-stalkers as royal," although this was not the original signification of the term, which has come to be misapplied by custom. Typical a 66 demonstrate how much larger, finer, and heavier were the antlers of former days, when the animals which bore them ranged over a larger tract of unenclosed country in which they found abundance of good grazing and browsing, and were not killed down in numbers with accurately sighted rifles as at the present day, instead of with the long-bow or cross-bow as in days of yore.
The splendid heads which are to be found at the present time in the forests of Germany and Hungary testify to the beneficial effects of abundant feeding and better management of the forests. (See an RED DEER AND YOUNG. red deer antlers will measure about 32 inches in length, 6 inches in girth above the bay tine, and 32 inches in greatest inside width.
Weight. A good Scotch stag should weigh 20 stone, but at the present day this weight is seldom reached in the British Islands, so great has been the deterioration from various causes, the chief of which is want of sufficient food, and the injudicious practice among deer-stalkers of shooting the best stags immediately before the rutting season, and so leaving the perpetuation of the race to young and inferior animals.
In the Thuringian forest, one of the best in Germany, a good stag at the present day might weigh 30 stone. In the Hungarian subalpine hill country, according to Baillie Grohman, stags may still be obtained weighing 44 stone clean (Sport in the Alps, p. 172).
Antlers. A comparison of Scottish deerheads with those which have been dug up in British peat-beds or found in the cave deposits of England and the Continent will 66 article by Mr. Baillie Grohman on Continental Red Deer, Past and Present," with figures of German, Carpathian, Slavonian, Hungarian, and Pomeranian deer-heads, in The Field, December 2nd and 9th, 1893, and the same writer's volume on Sport in the Alps, appendix, p. 335.) Wherever deer can get browsing on the leafy branches and shoots of forest trees as well as grazing on good pasture, they will always be in better condition and carry finer heads than on bare hill-sides. A proof of this may be seen in our English park deer, which, when properly cared for, are much heavier than any to be met with in Scottish deer forests or even in the wild woodlands of the West of England, where greater variety of food is to be obtained. As a notable example, we may refer to the head of a park deer figured in The Field of May 7th, 1892, from a photograph of a nine-year-old red stag in Warnham Park, Horsham, the residence of Mr. J. Lucas. (See also The Field of February 20th, 1897, where several photos are reproduced.) This stag, reared in the park, carried 31 points in 1888, and the cast antlers weighed 9+ lb.; in 1889, 33 points, 12+ lb.; in 1890, 35 points, 13 lb.; in 1891, 39 points, 16 lb.; in 1892, 48 points, 17 lb. The abnormal size and weight of these horns were no doubt due to good feeding over 250 acres, and to the fact of the land having been dressed with bone-dust every second year. They are large horns even for park deer; but what they gain in massiveness they lose in beauty, having none of that elegance and graceful contour which are so characteristic of a wild head.
For the comparative weights of stags and hinds (as well as of bucks and does) in various English deer parks, see Mr.
Whitaker's List of the Deer Parks and [RED DEER one of them, perhaps, will be retained for a day or two after the other. In a few days after the old horns have dropped, the new growth shows itself, and gradually the AN EXMOOR STAG.
Paddocks of England (1892). In regard to the weight of wild stags in Scotland, the south-west of England, and south-west Ireland, see an article by the present writer in The Field of November 15th, 1884. are Growth of Antlers. The antlers shed or cast as a rule about April or May, the oldest stags being the first to lose them.
The exact time, in fact, depends upon the age of the stag and the temperature of the preceding winter and early spring. Should the winter be cold and spring protracted, the stags shed their horns as late as May; the old ones at the beginning, the young ones at the end of the month. It is very rarely, however, that an old stag is seen with his horns on after the beginning of May; but a two-year-old deer will carry his horns for a month or two later. Both horns are not always shed at the same time; ANCIENT SCOTCH STAG. new antlers are developed. They are then covered with a thick "velvet," which preserves the point, as yet soft and tender, from injury. While in this soft condition they are very sensitive, and to avoid injury by striking them against trees, the deer leads a life of retirement. In about twelve weeks they are full-grown, and, as they gradually harden, the animals rub them against a tree to get rid of the "velvet." This can only be done gradually, and a stag may often be seen at this time of year with the "velvet" hanging in strips, being only partially detached from the horns. For fuller details concerning the growth of antlers see articles on "Deer Horns" in The Zoologist for September, 1884; The Field of December 4th, 1886, and Prof. Flower's lecture on horns and antlers, printed with illustrations in