232 ODD HOURS WITH NATURE 



It is often said in these days that the antlers of 

 the present race of red-deer in Scotland are 

 diminishing in size, and the owners of many deer 

 forests, believing this to be true, take special pains 

 to repair the defect. To this end they from time to 

 time introduce park deer from England and from 

 European countries, like Hungary, where the breed 

 runs to greater weight than with us. Some of 

 them, believing that big heads go with good feed- 

 ing to which alone the superior heads of the park 

 deer are attributed provide their herds with ample 

 winter supplies. 



That on a long view the antlers of deer show 

 a great reduction in size there is no doubt what- 

 ever. The antlers and skeletons of stags have 

 been recovered from the peat mosses of Scotland 

 immensely larger than any that have ever been 

 seen on living red -deer, and modern records bear 

 out strongly the belief that the process is going 

 on. But there are several reasons why we should 

 account it strange were it otherwise. The first 

 was pointed out by Darwin half a century ago, 

 when he said that the practice of the Scottish 

 sportsman of steadily killing the finest stags must 

 inevitably cause the whole race to degenerate a 

 practice, by the way, which, as Darwin noted, 

 is exactly the reverse of that followed by the Incas 

 of Peru. It is true that deer have been hunted 

 in this country ever since it had human inhabitants. 

 But down to the era of the rifle the hunter's power 

 of selecting the best was very limited. He had 

 generally to take what he could get rather than 

 what he would like, and as the deer-stalker till 



