Hart (deer) Hart (deer) Hart is an archaic word for "stag" (from Old English "heorot", "deer" – compare with modern Dutch "hert", medieval French "hart", German "Hirsch" and Swedish/Norwegian/Danish "hjort", also "deer"). Specifically, "hart" was used in medieval times to describe a red deer stag more than five years old. In medieval hunting terms, a stag in its first year was called a "calf" or "calfe", in its second a "brocket", in its third a "spayed", "spade", or "spayard", in its fourth a "staggerd" or "staggard", and in its fifth a "stag", or a "great stag". To be a "hart" was its
Red deer . Antlers, which are made of bone, can grow at a rate of a day. A soft covering known as velvet helps to protect newly forming antlers in the spring. European red deer antlers are distinctive in being rather straight and rugose, with the fourth and fifth tines forming a "crown" or "cup" in larger males. Any tines in excess of the fourth and fifth tine will grow radially from the cup, which are generally absent in the antlers of smaller red deer, such as Corsican red deer. Western European red deer antlers feature "bez" (second) tines that are either