248 IN FOREST AND ON HILL 



maimed and wounded animals which can never be 

 even approximately reckoned up. Quiet deer-shooting 

 in dense woods is a rare experience in these islands, and 

 very few have enjoyed such opportunities of driving 

 coverts for red deer as Mr. Colquhoun dilates on 

 enthusiastically in his recollections of his residence in 

 Mull. There we are reminded rather of the skill and 

 stealthy devices brought into play by the " still-hunter" 

 after elk in Canadian woods. But the bare chance of 

 coming across the wanderers from some neighbouring 

 forest goes far to enhance the excitement of one of 

 those roe battues which Mr. Colquhoun condemns as 

 blundering and unsportsmanlike. That they are gene- 

 rally mismanaged may be very true, chiefly because the 

 covers contain hares, rabbits, and pheasants as well, and 

 partly because few of the head-keepers organising the 

 beats remember that the roe has the scent of his red 

 cousin and is even more wary and timid. So if many 

 are moved, but few are knocked over, and that, 

 sportsmen as we are, we should consider matter for 

 jubilation if the roes were not so terribly destructive. 

 No Scottish creature is so graceful and ornamental, the 

 pity being that their shrinking timidity keeps them 

 invisible through the daytime in the seclusion of the 

 woods. But no creature is more hateful to forester or 

 farmer, whether feeding at dewy daybreak towards 

 harvest time in the nearest oat-field, or delicately 

 nibbling the top shoots in the young plantations pretty 

 nearly all the year round. So from the practical point 

 of view they are justly proscribed, like the hill foxes 



