196 



MAMMALS. 



during the past four seasons. A study of the figures will show that what may be 

 called the average head, those with eight or ten points, tend to improve in number, 

 while those with less than six points last year diminished by more than a half. 

 1889 was singularly rich in fifteen-pointers, and 1890 yielded the only eighteen- 

 point head shot between 1889-92. 



FIRST 500 STAG HEADS RECEIVED IN SEASONS 1889-90-91 and 1892. 



d 



o 



CO 



No. of Points. 



o 



3 Horn. 



mmel. 



Iforni. 



tier six 

 oints. 



Total. 



m 



6 



7 



8 



9 



10 



11 



12 



13 



14 



15 



]8 



xn 



o 











1889 

 1890 

 1891 

 1892 



42 

 57 

 49 

 56 



35 

 37 

 32 

 44 



83 

 90 

 91 

 87 



65 

 64 

 69 

 72 



87 

 97 

 111 

 100 



55 

 49 

 38 

 46 



54 

 32 

 45 

 49 



15 

 6 

 4 

 6 



5 

 2 

 1 



4 



1 



"l 

 1 



"l 



2 

 16 



2 

 10 



3 

 2 



*2 



"2 

 1 



4 

 1 

 1 

 1 



51 

 46 

 54 

 21 



500 

 500 

 500 

 500 





204 



148 



651 



270 



396 



186 



150 



31 



12 



3 



1 



30 



7 



3 



7 



172 



2000 



As showing the forwardness of the stags in 1893, we may men- 

 tion that * while Mr. Donald Mackintosh, one of Mr. John Har- 

 greave's deer-stalkers in Gaick Forest, Badenoch, was traversing 

 his grounds the other day, he came upon royal stag antlers newl}' 

 cast, and as ripe as if shed in April instead of December ' {Inver- 

 ness Courier, 29/xii/93). April is the more usual time for stags to 

 shed their horns. 



Capreolus capraea. Gray. Roe Deer. 



Very abundant in all the lower wooded parts of the area. The finest 

 Eoe come from those woods that border upon the large cultivated 

 districts, becoming smaller and scarcer as the upper valleys are 

 reached. 



Eoe seem most abundant in the woods of Cawdor, Darnaway, 

 Altyre, and Beauly, and at the latter place great numbers used to 

 be shot in the cover-shooting days. Probably a severe winter 

 drives many down from the upper valleys to these large, warm 

 woods, and thus keeps up the supply ; but out of the numbers that 

 strive to exist in these far-up glens, many die, as we were informed 

 both by the Guisachan and Invergarry keepers. Certainly, when 

 we were in these parts in the spring of 1892, we saw very few of 

 these creatures. In the large, warm woods near the cultivated 



