MISTAKE OF CROSSING BREEDS 317 



The excuse made for this crossing is the advantage of 

 fresh blood ; but surely there is no such necessity with 

 deer which are not confined in parks, but which can 

 travel from forest to forest, for the introduction of the 

 tamer nondescript blood. It appears to me to be a 

 direct upsetting of the laws of nature, where deer are 

 left in their wild and natural state. When not crowded 

 together by fences, they take good care of themselves, 

 and roam just where they choose. The champions 

 will force their inferiors to seek for harems elsewhere. 

 It is easy enough to keep deer down. Just at present 

 the difficulty in many forests lies rather in the other 

 direction, for the good stags are shot down before they 

 arrive at perfection, by reason of there being such a 

 craze for good heads. In some forests the lairds have 

 more sense, and afford a 'jubilee' to their best deer. 

 Thus the Duke of Sutherland very wisely gives his 

 royals a jubilee now and again, and is well repaid 

 with some of the finest imperials which can be any- 

 where seen. If more of the rubbish were killed off in 

 every forest, we should find, that the deer would 

 improve in horns. It is the most fatal thing to allow 

 a lot of rotten-horned beasts to breed ; their progeny 

 are useless. All rotten and switch-horned deer should 

 be killed down, and the best young stags allowed time 

 to oret better heads. In one forest I shot we killed 

 every objectionable head we saw or got a chance at, 

 and the result is that some splendid heads have been 

 got there ever since of a quality unknown there 

 previously. This was in the forest of Rhidoroch, 

 Ross-shire, and since then Captain Starkie has shot 

 some very fine heads in that forest. In Lord Cromarty's 

 forest (then belonging to the late Duchess of Suther- 



