88 UNGUIATA 



provender is scarce, the Red Deer of the northern forests 

 sometimes wander in quest of food and shelter, as far as 

 Glenfiriglas and the heights of Craig- vad" (see also the 

 "Old Statistical Account" of the parish of Callander, 1794, 

 vol. xi., p. 598). 



About ten years ago Red Deer were introduced to the park 

 at Hopetoun, Linlithgowshire, where I have seen them on 

 several occasions. The keeper tells me there are twenty-six in 

 the park at present, but that four years ago there were fully 

 double that number. During the winter of 1889-90 a hind, 

 doubtless an escape from Hopetoun, made its appearance in 

 Dalmeny park, where it remained some months, but had 

 ultimately to be shot owing to the damage it committed 

 among the young trees. In the park at Dalkeith Palace, 

 a single hind may now be seen feeding with the herd of 

 Fallow Deer kept there. 



In former times the Red Deer must have been abundant 

 and generally distributed in the south of Scotland. Tradition 

 tells us that during the Middle Ages the Scottish kings and 

 nobles were wont to hunt deer in the immediate neighbour- 

 hood of Edinburgh, and doubtless such was the case, though 

 there is little reliable historical evidence to point to. Such 

 tales, for instance, as that of the royal hunt of Roslin, in which 

 King Robert the Bruce is represented to have staked the forest 

 and estate of Pentland against the head of Sir William St Clair, 

 must be regarded as in the highest degree legendary (vide 

 Wilson's "Annals of Penicuik," 1891, p. 165). The Red Deer, 

 which was probably in most localities long survived by the Roe, 

 must now have been extinct in the lowlands for many centuries. 

 Even in the mountainous country around St Mary's Loch, it 

 seems to have been practically extinct for at least two hundred 

 years. Professor Walker, after informing us that, according 

 to Bishop Leslie, numerous stags of great size were found 



