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.[2]...

[2] Here follows a discourse on ancient boar hunting, exalting
it above the degenerate sports of the day. This ends the
chapter on "savage beasts."--W.

If I should go about to make any long discourse of venomous beasts or
worms bred in England, I should attempt more than occasion itself
would readily offer, sith we have very few worms, but no beasts at
all, that are thought by their natural qualities to be either venomous
or hurtful. First of all, therefore, we have the adder (in our old
Saxon tongue called an atter), which some men do not rashly take to be
the viper. Certes, if it be so, then is not the viper author of the
death of her[3] parents, as some histories affirm, and thereto
Encelius, a late writer, in his _De re Metallica_, lib. 3,