THE MANAGEMENT OF DEER FORESTS 119 



during one winter may look for a continuance of the 

 practice in the following year. In ail probability, 

 except in the case of a change of management in the 

 forest, the supply of winter food is in fact continued, 

 but if not it is hardly to be supposed that its discon- 

 tinuance would so demoralise the recipients of this to 

 them unnatural form of nourishment as to bring into 

 temporary disuse the instincts for foraging for them- 

 selves with which nature has provided them. 



Nor is there any reason to fear injury to their 

 constitutions. After all, the amount of extra feeding 

 which each stag gets must be very small just enough 

 to keep him in good heart and no more. If highly 

 fed for a succession of winters, such a change would 

 take place in their constitution that the wild red deer 

 of the Highlands would probably be no longer recog- 

 nisable, and would certainly starve if left for a single 

 winter to their ow r n resources. 



The third objection has some force, but it applies 

 to the feeding of all animals, and is not sufficient to 

 justify a discontinuance of the system of helping deer 

 to get through the winter if such is thought in other 

 respects desirable. 



One important provision for the maintenance of 

 a proper stock of deer of tJie right sort in a forest is 

 the formation of a sanctuary. The term, of course, 



