Quadrupeds. 427 



soil, as well as the numerous rising plantations in Moray, afl'ord too 

 many natural facilities for the protection of the rabbit, that it requires 

 not the arm of the law to keep up its numbers in their fair and legiti- 

 mate proportion. 



Alpine, mountain, blue or white hare, L. alius. Frequent in the 

 alpine and subalpine districts : a straggler may at times be found 

 down on the low country, as one which was killed by Mr. J. Dunbar, 

 on the 3rd of January, 1844, within a quarter of a mile of the town of 

 Elgin. A purely white specimen, even in the depth of winter is con- 

 sidered rather rare. 



Stag or red deer, Cervus Elaphus. Among the lofty mountains, 

 deep glens and wide forests that lie along the southern and western 

 borders of the Province, this, the noblest animal of the British Fauna 

 may still be seen to range in all its pristine freedom. Numbers, no 

 doubt, fall before the rifles of the deer-stalkers, who now, every au- 

 tumn, visit the moors and shooting-grounds of the north ; but this loss 

 is more than compensated by the care with which these grounds have 

 of late been guarded against the depredations of the lawless poacher. 

 Glenfiddach, the deer-forest of the Duke of Richmond, is perhaps as 

 well stocked as any other place in Scotland. From this locality strag- 

 glers are often seen to move down to the low country, especially to- 

 wards the woods of Gordon-castle. In that princely mansion there is 

 to be seen a fine assortment of this animal's horns, exhibiting every 

 variety of tyne, size and form. It has often been deemed somewhat 

 singular, if the stag annually shed its horns, that so few of them should 

 be met with in its haunts. An old shepherd, who had long followed 

 his avocation among the mountains of Badenoch, a favourite resort of 

 the red deer, gave a not unsatisfactory reason for this, by stating that 

 he believed many of these horns were chewed and destroyed by the 

 cattle that were sent every year to pasture in these remote districts. 

 He had often met with broken pieces that had undergone this process; 

 and all are aware of the avidity with which some cattle will pick up 

 and gnaw any bit of bone that may lie in their path. This explana- 

 tion is fully as feasible as that more commonly received, namely, that 

 the red deer purposely buries his horns out of sight in the mosses and 

 spongy places among the hills. 



Roebuck, C. Capreolus. While the red deer not unfrequently lives 

 among the bare hills far from any forest or plantation, the roebuck is 

 never seen in open ground, save when it is feeding or passing from 

 one cover to another. To afl'ord it a permanent residence, the cover, 

 if of grown wood, must be of considerable extent, as that of Gordon- 



