RED DEER, 165 



of the sportsman who followed up the pursuit of the salmon 

 over the rugged, and often dangerous, passes of the rocks 

 which overhang the deep black pools and rushing torrents of 

 the same river between Dulsie Bridge and the Heronry. 



Most of the roebucks have, by the end' of September, put 

 on their winter covering of rich mouse-coloured hair ; so 

 different from the thin red coat they wear during the summer. 

 Until they have quite changed colour, the roe are not in 

 sufficiently good condition to make them a fit object of pur- 

 suit for the sportsman. The stag is, however, in perfection, 

 both as to condition and beauty, during this month. 



The size of the horns of the red deer depends to a certain 

 degree on the feeding which the animal gets in the spring 

 and end of winter. If his food has been poor, and if he is 

 much reduced, the horns do not aquire their full develop- 

 ment and size. Fine heads of horns are now much rarer 

 than they were a few years ago. The reason of this probably 

 is, that the stag before it attains a mature age generally falls 

 a victim to one of the numerous English rifles, whose echoes 

 are heard in almost every Highland corrie. Even where 

 deer are most carefully preserved and most numerous, the 

 finest antlers are generally laid low every season ; so that 

 there are few left whose heads are thought worthy of being 

 kept as a trophy : yet small as they now comparatively are, 

 the value of a stag seems to depend more on his horns than 

 on his haunches. 



I am much inclined to think that the uncertainty of 

 getting a shot at deer in wood is even greater than on the 

 open mountain, the cunning of the animals, and dislike to 

 being driven in any one direction, frequently rendering abor- 

 tive the best arranged plans for beating a cover. Sometimes 

 the deer are off at the first sound of a beater, at another time 

 they will lie quietly without moving till all the men have 

 passed them, and will then sneak quietly back in the 

 contrary direction. 



I was this very year particularly struck with an instance 

 of deer escaping in this manner. I was placed with a friend 

 on passes commanding the extremity of a long narrow patch 

 of cover which grew on a steep brae overhanging a beautiful 

 river in Eoss-shire ; and the beaters were to commence their 

 work at the other extremity of the w r ood. We had taken 

 our stations at a considerable height above the river, at the 

 most likely pass for the deer to leave the wood by ; there we 



