392 HO W TO SHOOT AN INQ UISITIVE HIND 



a position that she must fall in her tracks, and if possi- 

 ble, that the report may not re-echo against the rocks 

 in the next corrie, where the deer are feeding. The 

 stalker should, after firing, take care not to show him- 

 self for some time, for I have often seen deer quite 

 puzzled as to what to do, not knowing where the shot 

 was fired from ; and I have known them under such 

 circumstances settle down to feed a^rain in half an hour's 

 time in the corrie next to the one they were in when 

 the shot was fired. It is then an easy matter to drag 

 the hind down to the nearest burn, gralloch her, and 

 to return home by a track along which the deer are 

 accustomed to see shepherds daily passing, 



I have at times been unfortunate enough to have 

 considerable trouble of this kind with hinds, where the 

 forest has been constantly driven before stalking had 

 been tried on the ground, and I would not, therefore, 

 advise such decisive measures being made use of, save 

 where the hinds are very old and cunning, and it 

 is absolutely impossible to secure a stalk by other 

 means. 



It is more difficult to approach deer on fine warm 

 days in the majority of forests, as they generally betake 

 themselves to the hill-tops, in order to avoid the annoy- 

 ance of flies, which the wind keeps away, and, where 

 the hills are round, it takes a stalker all his time to 

 circumvent them. It is unwise to attempt to stalk 

 deer in such positions too early in the day, especially 

 in high wind, for under such circumstances they will 

 often make tracks for miles, and, should the stalker 

 succeed in getting up to them a second time, he will 

 find them all on the alert and very restless. On a calm 

 day they are, as a rule, less wild, but all the same, it is 



