40 THE DEER FORESTS OF SCOTLAND. 



calves, Mr. Evans is of opinion, after long observation, 

 that they only occur but once in several hundred 

 births. 



Mention must now be made of an extra- 

 ordinary curiosity of the Jura Forests, called "the 

 cromie stag," Gaelic for "crooked." In Jura only do 

 these stags exist ; how they got there or whence 

 they came no one knows, but there they have been 

 from time immemorial, and confident I feel either 

 that they are a distinct race, or that some stag from 

 foreign lands once managed to get to Jura in days 

 gone by and left his mark behind him. Even in 

 Jura these " cromies " are very scarce, living only 

 in certain parts of the island, where perhaps three 

 or four "cromies" may be seen to one hundred 

 others, and the whole forest may not contain a 

 score of them. In twelve years Mr. Evans has 

 shot but eleven, and for several seasons past none 

 at all, although by this it must not be inferred that 

 absence from the larder means absence from the 

 hill, for, thanks to Mr. Evans' care, there are still 



