112 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY 



deer are generally considered a pest akin to the goat, and 

 undoubtedly squirrels in the second class are an equal 

 nuisance. 



The remainder are desirable in varied degree. Red deer 

 can usefully shelter in fairly grown forests when so habituated, 

 and fallow-deer take to them naturally. Rabbits are only 

 tolerable in warrens wired in, and hares are negligible. 



In Canada and Siberia, farms are already started in which the 

 more valuable fur-bearing animals are reared, and from which 

 they are turned loose. As the common fox produces a skin 

 worth little or nothing, and other varieties of foxes' pelts fetch 

 fabulous sums, it is evident that details are worth study. 



The same might be said of the otter, marten and other 

 varieties. In the earliest records of Inverness borough, which 

 only date back three to four centuries or a trifle in time, the 

 chief trade was in beaver skins. It is therefore quite obvious 

 that the reversion to forest of any considerable areas in Scotland 

 would permit the re-introduction of the beaver. 



Whether it would be profitable or desirable to attempt this 

 is quite another matter, but a matter of the exact kind which 

 is now well worth study and decision in estimating the future 

 productive value of forest areas. 



Birds, again, may be divided for present purposes into two 

 classes, viz., those called game birds, which are also useful for 

 food, and the remainder. 



With extensive forests the moorland or red grouse would 

 naturally disappear on the areas planted, but this does not 

 exhaust the whole grouse family. I have shot grouse in 

 woodlands by Lake Ontario, but am not sufficiently a naturalist 

 to know whether this was the " Willow Grouse " of America or 

 another species. Similarly in the Himalayas I have killed tree 

 partridges, locally called " Bahn Titas," in thick forest, it being 

 chiefly met with in woods of oak and rhododendron. 



Pheasants would increase in forests, especially if care were 

 taken to plant some undergrowth bearing berries for their 

 sustenance in winter. Wild turkeys might again very possibly 

 be acclimatised, as well as other varieties, and the caper cailzie 

 would thrive in woods of conifers. Black game are condemned 

 as destructive, as Lord Lovat admits. 



Outside game-birds there are only those valuable for their 

 plumage, or for the destruction of noisome insects. 



