21 



We will now consider the production and death of stags. 

 We estimate that 20 per cent, of stag calves reared up to 

 February usually die during their first year, chiefly in March deaths of 

 and April. It is true that for the last 6 years we have Sta S s - 



only found the bodies of 1 1 per cent, of calves, but calves Per centa s e of 



* dead. 



die in all sorts of places, also their flat lean bodies soon 



decay, are eaten by other deer and disappear. For our 

 first recorded 5 years we found 25 per cent, of dead calves. 

 We have fully recognized this in constructing our series of stags ^ eac l calves 

 and hinds. We take the percentage of death for knobbers (year- 

 lings) at 5 per cent., but we find very few dead knobbers. Three 

 in one year is our highest find. I may remark that Murchison, 

 the forester, does not remember seeing a dead two-year-old stag. 

 We take the death-rate of stags at 3 per cent, a year after 

 passing the year of " knobberhood " till they are 12 years old, O f Stags that 

 so 100 calves reared up to February produce 56 stags of 12 r< j acl1 I2 y ears 

 years old. Excluding sheep ground, Ardfin (no data), and 

 also Tarbert, we find the yearly death rate of stags on 

 Forest for 1 1 years recorded 4! per cent. For the last 6 years 

 it has been much less, viz., 2.\ per cent. For the first 5 years 

 recorded it was 6| per cent, (out of our first 7 years we have 

 records of 5 only). More than half the dead stags are old 



wasters. For example, 1888 and 1889 combined in Forest and 



- . . , Wasted Stags 



Tarbert together result is 42 dead stags, of which 32 were con- principally 



sidered wasters. Thirty-two of these stags died on Forest, 10 on found dead - 

 Tarbert (an extraordinary number this was of wasters). There- 

 fore I think we are quite safe (/.<?., over the mark) in taking the 

 yearly stag mortality at 3 per cent, till their prime, viz., 12 years' 

 old. We think we find very nearly all the dead stags, though 

 we do not think we can count all the live ones ; however we 

 may sometimes count the same stags twice over as in 1881 

 apparently, and perhaps also in 1884 and 1885. 



The destruction of stags from all causes, including knobbers, Loss of Stags 

 for the whole ground (Ardfin, Forest, and Tarbert) was, for the in early years, 

 first 7 years, viz. : 1878 to 1884 inclusive, as nearly as we can 

 calculate, 105 stags a year. This, had it continued, would have 

 shown 1,260 stags wiped out in 12 years. The destruction is L . , 

 less now, say 15 stags a year less, for 6 years past, and also years. 



