26 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE RED DEER 



CHAPTER II 

 THE RED DEER'S LIFE 



THE habits of most wild quadrupeds are liable to 

 be largely modified by local circumstances. The red 

 deer conforms to the general rule. The immense 

 forests of Germany, some of which abound in deer, 

 are as dissimilar as possible from many of the stony 

 wildernesses in which most of our Scottish stags take 

 their pleasure. There is a weird, uncanny feeling 

 about the pet corries of our Highland deer. You 

 may tramp through the midst of them for miles, 

 without observing any more stirring sign of life than 

 the whirr of a startled grouse or the hasty scamper 

 of a blue hare. Only here and there, but always at 

 pretty long intervals, does a green brae crop up, as 

 though to redeem the landscape from the reproach of 

 absolute sterility. The ground is often too bare to 

 feed hardy black-faced wedders to a profit. Now, 

 one may feel half bewildered in the mazy depths of 

 a forest in Germany ; but the deep woods afford us 



