130 DEER 



renown, even recorded, are numerous, and famed both in song 

 and tale. The famous white sta^r of Ben Alder is one, it lies 

 buried with Mac Gille Naomh's hound beneath the waters of 

 Loch Bhrotainn. In the Monadh Hath the deer are said to excel 

 all others, but were not so fortunate as those of the Reay forest 

 which was once enchanted by the "Cailleach mhor Chlibric," 

 the great hag or witch of Clibric, who rendered the deer all 

 bullet proof. The beautiful species of deer or antelope, referred 

 to as the Pygarg in Deut. xiv. 5, is supposed to mean chamois. 

 Sir R. Gordon refers to deer in Ben Arkel, Sutherland, with 

 forked tails, three inches long. A stag's leap, " sinleag feidh," 

 Nether Lochaber tells us, was used as an old Highland linear 

 measure equal to thirty English feet. Deer will pasture with 

 goats, but dislike sheep, as Duncan Ban Maclntyre so often tells us. 

 The deer, it will be remembered, was the emblem or coat-of-arms 

 of one of the Twelve Tribes, viz., Naphtali. The word "ruadh" 

 for deer, it may be added, is and was in frequent use, as 



*S minig a ghluais iad maraon do (gu) seilg 

 'S do (gu) ruadhaibh na fasaich. 



Often did they proceed to the hunt 



And towards the hinds of the forest. Temora. 



The skin of the female deer is finer than that of the male, 

 and used to be formed into furs as well as tunics for women of 

 high and low degree ; it is called hiche. The hindquarters or 

 haunch of a deer, it may be mentioned, is called breclie, the root 

 of the word " breeches." 



The word or term "Binneach" as applied to a roedecr is 

 found in the place named "Cnoc-nam-binneachain " at Leumre 

 (leum reidh), Auchendaur (Ach' an dair), so named from rutting 

 season fights there. For full and interesting accounts of deer 

 and deer-hunting reference is made to Vol. II. of The Lays of 

 the Deer Forest, by Iain agus Tearlach na h-Albainn (Sobieski 

 Stuarts), 2 vols., 1848 ; where, inter vudta alia, it is pointed out as 

 a very desirable correction that the young, etc., of the deer kind 

 are frequently misnamed, and are as follows. Fawn, young of 

 fallow-deer ; Kid, young of roe ; Calves, young of hind ; the cry of 

 the roebuck is called "Bell," and of the stag "Bray or bellow." 

 The male of the red-deer is stag, of the fallow and roedeer 

 buck, the female red-deer is hind, the fallow and roedeer doe. 

 The following list is useful and interesting : — 



MALES. RED-DEER. FALLOW-DEER. ROE-DEER. 



1 year . . Calf. Fawn. Kid. 



2 years . . Brocket Pricket. Gerle. 



3 ,, . . Spayad. Sourel. Hemule, or Herause. 



4 ,, . . Stag. Soure. Roebuck of the first head. 



5 „ . . Great Stag. Buck of the first head. Roebuck. 



6 ,. . . Hart Buck. 



