NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 101 



At this season the hinds keep, as a rule, lower down the hill- 

 sides, and seldom associate with the stags. Only on one occasion 

 did I see stags and hinds in company. Several times I started a 

 solitary hind from her lair low down amongst the old rank heather, 

 and on all such occasions she seemed to be an aged beast, greyer 

 and more rugged-looking than those which were going in herds. 

 Probably these were the old barren hinds. About 70 or 80 stags 

 are killed in a season on the wester half of the Harris Forest, and 

 about 60 on the easter half — at that time leased by the Messrs. 

 Milbank — " all by stalking, driving never being resorted to" as I 

 was informed by the head forester. In 1869, 75 were killed on 

 the former, and 50 on the latter beat. 



Captain Macdonald, of Rodil, informed me that when fresh blood 

 was introduced from Athole Forest, one fine large stag of the 

 Athole lot would not take up with the degenerate stock at all. This 

 splendid animal wandered southward to Rodil, thence crossed the 

 Sound of Harris — 8 miles — going from island to island, to North 

 Uist. Here the hinds did not please him, and he travelled on 

 until he reached Barra Head. There, as Captain Macdonald told 

 me further, he " smelt no* longer the scent of land," and turning, 

 retraced his steps, and attempted to land again in Harris. Alas! 

 two Cockney sportsmen, who had taken the Borve shootings, 

 massacred the noble animal in the water, before he even put foot 

 on land, when Captain Macdonald happened to be away from 

 home. 



In North Uist Deer are not now so numerous as formerly, and 

 appeared in 1870 to be gradually dying out. They have bad heads, 

 much deformed. The only fresh blood ever introduced was a single 

 stag, I understand, about 3 or 4 years previous to 1870. There is 

 no suitable forest ground in North Uist, except a small piece around 

 Ben Lee, which contains, however, no Deer, being a sheep farm. 

 The Deer inhabit the low moors, which are perfectly cut up with 

 " peat-hags," and intersected by the wonderful ramifications of the 

 sea and fresh- water lochs. There are no Deer on either Ben Lee or 

 Ben Ebhal. 



Those on the moors and islands of the lochs* are almost 



* There is one large green, almost circular, island on Loch-nan-Ean — where 

 there is an immense colony of the Common Gull {Lams canis, L.) — a par- 

 ticularly favourite haunt of the deer. Here Captain Feilden and I picked 

 up several cast horns. 



