254 DELIBERATE INTRODUCTION OF NEW ANIMALS 



square miles of country, were cleared of the pest, Hares made 

 their way within the fences and there became numerous 

 again. The apparent antipathy between the two rodents 

 has a simple explanation, for it is due to the fouling by many 

 Rabbits of grass and herbage, which thus becoYne quite un- 

 palatable to Hares. I have no doubt that careful observation 

 of the smaller inhabitants of a rabbit-infested region would 

 show that besides these, many faunal changes have been 

 caused by the influence of this hardy importation. 



FAILURE TO ACCLIMATIZE FOREIGN DEER 



Fortunately for man's welfare, not all the animals which 

 he introduces, take possession of the land of their adoption 

 as the Rabbit has done. What dreams of swelling numbers 

 and profitable herds accompanied the reintroduction of the 

 Reindeer to Scotland, I do not know, but it is certain that 

 the dreams, such as they were, have come to naught. Why 

 this should be is difficult to say, especially as native Reindeer 

 survived for long in the northern counties, and as suitable 

 food seems to be sufficiently common on many moors. Be 

 this as it may, no fewer than fourteen Reindeer were brought 

 to Dunkeld and released by the Duke of Athole on the hills 

 of Athole at different times in the eighteenth century, and 

 of these only one survived for two years. Similar attempts 

 to establish them in the Forest of Mar in Aberdeenshire 

 and in the Orkney Isles have been equally unsuccessful. I 

 do not of course refer to the preservation of such examples 

 as are to be seen in the Park of the Zoological Society at 

 Corstorphine near Edinburgh (Fig. 58, p. 339), where young 

 Reindeer have been born and successfully reared, for there 

 the animals are strictly tended and dieted, and cannot be 

 regarded as surviving on their own merits, or as forming 

 an addition to our fauna. 



Similar failure met Sir Arthur Grant's attempts to ac- 

 climatize the American Wapiti Deer at Monymusk in 

 Aberdeenshire, where in the nineties of last century they 

 could be distinguished by their large size and fine antlers. 

 Although they seemed to thrive well and crossed freely with 

 the native Red Deer, the stock finally died out. A like fate 

 has befallen the Virginian Deer introduced into Arran about 



