Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 1 (1897).djvu/64

38 These Martindale deer appear to have had no change of blood until thirteen or fourteen years ago, when one stag calf and five hinds were procured "from a well-known forest on the Scottish mainland," which soon mingled freely with the English hinds. "In a forest like Martindale, where there is no other wood than stunted hazel or wind-twisted thorns and alder, the deer are forced to subsist throughout the year on an admixture of short sweet grass and strong wiry bents, besides heather where they can get it. When Martindale was cropped with extensive fields of oats, the deer used to break bounds, and often inflicted considerable injury on the ripening grain before it was carried. At the present time the stags roam in winter in search of fields of turnips, repeating their incursions night after night, in spite of careful watching." But we cannot give more extracts, and must cease our peaceful contemplation of the animal and proceed to "Deerstalking" under the guidance of Cameron of Lochiel.

Here the scene is changed to the Highlands of Scotland, and though sport is now the main topic there is still much to interest the zoologist. We seem always born too late to have known nature at her best. The name of deer-forest is almost as misleading as that of a Boer farm. Yet at the same time the first is at least a survival, and "seems to confirm the opinion, if confirmation be necessary, that vast regions of the Highlands were in former times covered with indigenous forests of the various species of trees, whose descendants, in sadly diminished numbers, are found at the present day scattered among the valleys and on the hill-sides of most of our northern counties." The owners have altered as well as the forests. There was a time, as our author informs us, when a nobleman was not expected to so far derogate from his position as to go into the forest and shoot deer himself when a forester was kept for that purpose. Now a successful millionaire considers he puts the seal on his social position by purchasing his right to do so. We are therefore not surprised to learn that at the present day it is calculated that about 4000 stags are killed annually. But the rifle is not the only enemy of the deer. "Spring is the ticklish time of year for all animals in the Highlands. If deer are very much reduced during the winter, they are bound to suffer when the grass begins to grow. If they are in good order they proceed to lay on flesh