16 INTRODUCTORY 



was common in the Lowlands, especially in the Tweed valley, 

 where its remains have been found on many occasions. 

 Once it ranged from Wigtownshire to Strath Halladale in 

 northern Sutherlandshire, but its scanty numbers are now 

 confined to the woodland regions of northern Europe. Of 

 other forest deer, Red Deer of large size (see Frontispiece), 

 with magnificent antlers, sometimes bearing twenty-two 

 points, were abundant throughout the country from Wig- 

 townshire to Caithness and even in the distant Orkney and 



Fig. 3. Old World Lynx. | natural size. 



Shetland Islands, whence they have long since disappeared. 

 Their degenerate descendants on the mainland are now 

 confined to the waste Highlands north of the valley of the 

 Forth and Clyde. Roe Deer, on the other hand, judging from 

 the few remains which have been unearthed, were scarce; 

 nevertheless, they must have been widely distributed, for 

 their bones have been found in a peat-bog at Shaws, 

 Dumfriesshire, as well as in a kitchen-midden, probably 

 of Neolithic date, on the mainland of Shetland. In the 

 thickets, the Wild Boar was plentiful, and occasional bones 

 tell of the presence of the nocturnal Badger. By the river- 



