854 WILD BEASTS AND THEIR WAYS CHAP. 



20 stone. The same species of deer in Hungary and Transylvania 

 will average 20 stone, and will produce antlers of great length 

 and weight, with from fourteen to twenty points, against the 

 Scotch stag's ten or twelve. Nothing can more forcibly prove the 

 necessity of shelter and good food. Many j>ersons imagine that a 

 wild animal can live upon anything, and will thrive where a 

 domestic animal would starve. To a certain extent this is true, 

 but, on the other hand, the creature will either improve or deterior- 

 ate, according to the quality of its pasturage and its protection 

 from the severity of climate. Nothing can improve by suffering ; 

 all pain and privation must have an adverse effect upon animals or 

 human beings ; therefore the destruction of forests in the High- 

 lands of Scotland has not only deprived the deer of shelter, but 

 has destroyed the plants upon which they depended for their 

 winter's food. Foreigners are struck by the absurdity of the 

 misnomer " a deer-forest " in Scotland, upon hills that are com- 

 pletely devoid of trees. 



It is much to be regretted that the red-deer of Great Britain 

 are no longer the grand animals which they continue to be in other 

 parts of Europe. The trophy of a fine head is the reward for a 

 painstaking stalk and a successful shot ; but there are no heads in 

 Scotland that are worthy of the name, as specimens of the antlers 

 of red-deer. 



As I have already remarked, the development of every animal 

 will depend upon the favourable conditions of localities ; as the 

 red-deer has deteriorated in Scotland, it may have improved in 

 other countries. I regard the wapiti of America as the red-deer 

 upon a gigantic scale. If a wapiti stag were placed in a line with 

 a fine German, and a Scotch red-deer, there would be an immense 

 difference in size, but they would look like the same animal in 

 gradations ; there would be about the same relative difference 

 between the wapiti and the German stags as between the latter 

 and those of Scotland. 



Many years ago, through the kindness of the late Duke of 

 Athole, I had an intimate experience of the Athole forest, which 

 at that time was much overstocked with deer. The consequence 

 was that they lacked size, and it was rare to kill a hart in con- 

 dition, above 15 stone ; 16 was considered much above the average, 

 and very few of that weight were killed during the season. The 

 horns were small in due proportion. The deer were so numerous 

 in those days that the ground was foul from their great numbers, 

 and I have seen upwards of a thousand together in one drive upon 

 the hillside above Glen Tilt. At one time Her Majesty and the 



