RED DEER 



t 



and blows with his horns. It is a terrible and desperate fight 

 sometimes to the death ; and the victor, blood-stained and almost 

 exhausted, holds up his swollen neck, and with a noble mien goes 

 proudly towards the hind for which this battle was fought. 



In the spring of the year we sometimes see frisky fawns 

 playing by their mothers, and I remember coming across a large 

 herd in the Highlands while in search of that rather rare bird 

 the Red-throated Diver. From my little bird-watching tent, under 

 which I was concealed, they could be seen. That was indeed a 

 picture of Nature in her loneliest mood. Except for the wild 

 creatures around me, I almost seemed to be alone in the world, 

 so desolate and far-stretching was that great moor with grey 

 mountains beyond. No sound reached me but that of the Divers, 

 and throughout the day both male and female gave out their 

 weird note, resembling more than anything else the long-drawn- 

 out groan of an old man in fearful pain. I have seen some lonely 

 spots in my Birdland travels, but that wind-swept moor, with 

 those wild, unearthly noises ringing over it, and the proud Deer 

 all unconscious that they were being watched walking with airy, 

 graceful step over the heather, verily seemed to be a scene from 

 behind Nature's veil that does not fall to the lot of many bird- 

 lovers to look upon. 



When the sun sinks in a cloudless summer sky, the Red 

 Deer often go down to the lochs, wading out to the small 

 islands, and this perhaps is the best time to watch them, for if 

 we know their haunts we can lie concealed with a good field- 

 glass, and be well repaid for our trouble. 



The Red Deer is very inquisitive, and while rowing along a 

 Highland loch in search of a nest of the Black-throated Diver, we 

 repeatedly saw the head of one of these animals peering at us 

 over the heather ; and when we went round a point, or our boat 

 was concealed for a time behind a projecting rock, we saw the 



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