Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 1 (1897).djvu/63

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Fur and Feather Series with this volume maintain their standard of excellence in Natural History and Sport. In fact, one great merit of these volumes is to show how sport and natural history should be combined, and not divorced as is so frequently the case. Of course there is no necessity for the naturalist to be a sportsman, though every field naturalist has some of the spirit and ardour that pertain to that pursuit; but there is every reason for the sportsman to be—as he often is—an observant naturalist, and his opportunities are great. To readers of 'The Zoologist' the principal interest will be found in the contribution by Mr. Macpherson, who in delightful phraseology that recalls the scenes among which the Red-deer is found, gives us a local narrative of the life of the animal.

As our author remarks, the history of the wild Red-deer (Cervus elaphus) is closely interwoven with our national life, and we may well sigh for the times when "The Weald of Kent was no less the haunt of well-furnished hinds than the waste lands of Lancashire, or the more distant solitudes of central Scotland." Much has been written on the Irish deer, descriptive justice has been done to the English and Scotch deer, but, as we read, "Curiously enough, no one except the writer himself has attempted the life of the stag upon the face of the mist-wrapped hills of the English Lake district. In the forest of Martindale, situated in the very midst of this Lake-land, the deer "which once roamed from the shores of the North Sea to the red sandstone cliffs that break the swell of the Irish Channel, have for many years past found their only northern sanctuary," and as existing in this haven Mr. Macpherson tells the tale of their lives.