RED DEER 



weather. We were told that in this famous Deer-forest 

 of Morar there are not less than ten thousand head of 

 these bold, fine animals, and that at Christmas 1918 

 several hundreds were slain for the hospitals. When 

 holidaying in Arran we had often heard from the crofters 

 and small tenant-farmers of the tameness of the Red 

 Deer during Winter. We were informed that they were 

 so hard pressed for food that they even approached the 

 door of the homestead. In consequence, many animals 

 are thus captured, a poor reward for the pangs of hunger 

 overtaking them. Yet, on reflection, one must remember 

 the poverty of these sons of the soil, and how difficult 

 it is for them to make a living. They are largely depend- 

 ent upon the produce and stock they themselves raise, 

 surrounded in their home-Ufe by fowls, ducks, geese, 

 pigs, cows, goats, sheep and other domestic animals, 

 which often share the same dwelling-place as their 

 owners. The capture of a Deer means a good deal to 

 the poorer crofters, hard-working, large-hearted Scotch 

 folk, from whom the family of the author descended 

 when his ancestors helped to raise the standard of Bonnie 

 Prince CharHe at Glenfinnan ; but who, like so many 

 others, had to flee to England after the battle of Culloden 

 in 1746. 



As with the flesh-eating aquatic mammals of the 

 Order Carnivora, the British representatives of the 

 Ungulata are three in number. 



The range of the Red Deer must at one time have been 



very extensive, as fossil antlers and bones are frequently 



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