24 



Dumbarton, and Argyll — in all of which large tracts of land have 

 been set aside as deer-forests. The most southern station of the 

 Red-Deer in Scotland is the Island of Arran, where it appears to 

 be indigenous. 



[Cervus dama, Linnaeus.— The Fallow-Deer (Gael, Dathais) 

 thrives in parks as far north as Sutherlandshire ( Harvie-Broivn, 

 P. N. H. Glasg., in., p. 229), and exists in a semi-wild state in some 

 places, as in Islay and Mull. Although the species existed in 

 Britain in prehistoric times, it appears to have become extinct 

 before the Roman period, and modern "wild" Fal low-Deer are 

 probably all descended from escaped specimens (cf. Brooke and 

 Boyd Dawlcins, Nature, xi., pp. 210, 226). Fallow-Deer were kept 

 at Stirling by the Scottish Kings as far back as 1283, as is 

 shown by the royal accounts dnnes' " Scotland, in Middle Ages," p. 

 125).] 



[Cariacus virginianus (Gmelin). — The Virginian Deer was 

 introduced into Arran about 1832, and still thrives there, although 

 their numbers have been reduced of late years (Alston, in Bryce's 

 "Arran," 4th ed., 1872, p. 313).] 



39. Capreolus capraea, Gray. 



Roe-Deer. 



Scot, Ra, Rae. 



Gael, Earba, Earb; Boc-earb (Roe-buck.) 



The very interesting history of the distribution of the Roe-Deer 

 in Britain is at present being investigated by Mr. J. E. Harting. 

 It was formerly found all over Scotland and England, as is proved, 

 not only by remains found in peat, lake-bottoms, &c, but by 

 numerous allusions in history and tradition. The advance of 

 civilization and the general destruction of forests gradually drove 

 it back, till, at the end of the last century, it appears to have been 

 strictly confined to the Highland counties. Pennant said that 

 the first which were to be met with in his time (going north- 

 wards) were in the woods on the south side of Loch Rannoch. In 

 1792, the minister of the parish of Dingwall had only once seen a 

 Roe (Old Stat. Ace, in., p. 5), and the species is stated to have 

 reappeared at Little Dunkeld about 178G (op. cit., vi., p. 302). 

 Walker in his " Mammalia Scotica " gives only Ross, Inverness, 

 Argyll, and Perthshire as localities (Essays Nat. Hist., 1812, p. 

 506). Protection and the great increase of plantations have 



