526 CONFERENCE OF DELEGATES 



But I think this is hardly necessary. The deer would cross the march into 

 the park and out again as they do now between forests. Moreover, it would 

 not be necessary to keep anything like such a stock of deer in a National Park 

 as proprietors of forests like to see on their ground. Naturally people who 

 take a forest for stalking want to get as much sport as possible and like to 

 see a good head of deer, but for the purpose of preservation this is not neces- 

 sary nor indeed does it seem particularly desirable. All you want is sufficient 

 deer to be visible to the public in their native haunts and it would be neces- 

 sary to shoot them fairly hard in order to keep their numbers within limits 

 and prevent them from becoming a nuisance. But they would be shot on 

 rather different lines from those pursued by owners of forests. Naturally a 

 stalker wants to get a big beast with a good head. The heavier the beast 

 and the finer the head the better— but in a Park one would spare the big stags 

 with the good heads and confine shooting to the poorer animals and older 

 stags with going-back heads. The hinds would probably have to be shot 

 a good deal harder than is done on forests at present and in the winter a 

 considerable number of yeld hinds, old beasts and poor animals would 

 want shooting, possibly also the calves would have to be kept down to a 

 certain extent. Another reason for fairly hard shooting would be that other- 

 wise the deer, finding themselves unmolested, might crowd into the Park 

 from the neighbouring forest and not only would you get your ground over- 

 stocked but there would be complaints from your neighbours. The same 

 remarks apply also of course to fallow deer who frequent rather lower ground 

 than red deer. As regards the roe deer it would be necessary that there 

 should be a certain amount of woodland on the ground and a careful eye 

 kept upon the bucks. Old roe bucks are ferocious beasts and are liable to 

 drive the other bucks away unless they are strictly controlled. 



Other beasts which I think might well be added to the stock of a National 

 Park are the so-called park cattle. These, as is well known, exist in a 

 wild state at Lord Tankerville's place at Chillingham. I feel certain that 

 a herd of these cattle allowed to exist in a wild state would prove a 

 valuable addition to a National Park. I do not know whether they have 

 been actually tried in Scotland, but I do not see why they should not do 

 there since they resemble fairly closely the native Scottish cattle. 



Then in Scotland we also have a few wild goats. These are probably 

 the descendants of ordinary goats run wild and they are therefore feral 

 animals and not true wild ones, but they are well known in Scotland and like 

 the cattle might well be preserved in a National Park. Perhaps the most 

 interesting animals would be the carnivorous animals. Foxes, badgers, 

 stoats and weasels are common enough and exist in Scotland as well as 

 in England and Wales. There would be no difficulty about them nor 

 would there be about otters, provided, of course, that the Park had streams, 

 rivers and burns to provide fish. But there are three species which are 

 becoming very scarce indeed and deserve every effort being made to retain 

 them. These are the wild cat, the pine marten and the pole cat. Wild 

 cats only exist now in the North and West of Scotland and unfortunately 

 they cross with the common tame cat, but they are beautiful beasts, very 

 fierce and, it is said, quite untamable. We had some at Whipsnade, 

 but unfortunately they died of cat distemper. They are not easily pre- 

 served in captivity. There are some in the forests in the North where 

 they are preserved because they kill grouse and other hindrances to 

 stalking and they do well and increase. Much the same may be said 

 of the pole cat, which is also becoming rare. But with preservation there 

 is no reason why these species should not also increase, if preserved. 

 Perhaps the rarest of all our fauna is the pine marten, which as its name 



