192 



MAMMALS. 



a stag on being frightened has broken his leg on running through 

 a very rough corrie. On one occasion a forester saw an eagle 

 swoop down on a wounded stag. 



Stags can swim well, and they have a habit of going into lochs 

 and swamps for certain water plants; occasionally one gets 

 drowned by becoming entangled in the weeds ; one was found at 

 the Powder lake at Invergarry by Murdoch Matheson, that had 

 lost its life in this manner. 



Hinds calve about the end of May, but mostly in June ; they 

 leave the calf for the first week and suckle it in the place in which 

 they leave it ; after that the calf follows its mother. A hind will 

 be nearly two and a half years old before she breeds, and three 

 years old before she has her first calf. 



Of course, in these days of wire-fencing, stags must be much 

 circumscribed in their travels during the rutting season ; but in 

 former days the Highlanders seem to have set no bounds to the 

 extent of their expeditions at that time. One of the finest old 

 heads we have ever seen was shot by a poacher in the Strathspey 

 district, ' many years ago ' ; it was well known on its rounds during 

 the rutting season, and was supposed to have come from Sutherland. 

 There can be no doubt that stags do travel long distances during 

 the rutting season, and one or two instances of very tired animals 

 have come under our own notice. 



Many forests are now partially, some wholly, wired in. Were 

 the places they frequent in the Highlands as fit for cultivation and 

 habitation as England, then the Eed Deer would no longer exist 

 in a wild state, but would be confined to deer parks, as is the case 

 in that country ; it is, we think, as well for everybody that such is 

 not so, for various reasons, which need not be stated here. 



As it is, these wire-fences must have a great influence on the 

 habits of deer. Deer dislike a wire-fence very much until they get 

 used to it, and it is only stress of weather, or the sight of some extra 

 good feeding on the other side, that will tempt them to jump one. 



We are quite of the opinion that a stag, until killed, or turned 

 from his usual course by a new wire-fence, will come to the same 

 . piece of ground to look for hinds year after year. We well 

 remember being told that, for two years, on the same day and the 

 same hill, a stag with thirteen points had been seen. The very 

 first year of our tenancy, Mr. Winans was engaged in putting up 



