THE RED DEER 
Archie killed the stag up in the sanctuary of X one Sunday morning when 
all the good people of Deeside were at the kirk. He buried it, and in the fol- 
lowing winter brought it down to his cottage, where it lay in the rafters till 
long after his death, as he was afraid to sell it. Eventually the head stalker 
of X heard of it and bought it from the widow for a small sum. Then it 
passed to his son, ai shopkeeper in Braemar, from whom I bought it for 
forty pounds. You can see that the head is genuine, as it is so deeply 
impregnated with peat smoke.” 
“ Yes,” I replied, with some suspicion, “ but no age or peat smoke 
would make the points of the horns dark brown as they are. May I have 
some steps ? ” 
A close examination proved that the horns were perfectly smooth, and on 
being given permission to try them with a penknife I cut out a piece of wood. 
The famous horns were entirely made of wood and were probably four or 
five years old; a fine piece of carving, which I fear the owner now scarcely 
appreciates. 
As a matter of fact this specimen was a more -easily -to -be -detected 
fraud than some I have come across in Berlin and Vienna, where copies of 
stags’ heads in iron, plaster of Paris and wood are so perfectly executed as 
to deceive most experts until they are handled, when the weight and the 
composition of the skull give a clue to the material. 
All kinds of curious accidents happen to Red deer. Not long ago a hind 
got her head through a tin pail at Badenloch, and went about with this 
strange collar for months. A case of a stag getting its horns entangled 
in a wire fence and winding up the wire until it became a perfect nest 
on its head is known, whilst there are several instances of stags meeting 
death by being caught by the neck in the fork of a tree whilst browsing. 
Not long ago a stag was found dead, having thus hanged itself in Windsor 
Park, and another in Somerset. There is the case, too, of a stag slipping 
on the hill when feeding, its body and hind parts coming so suddenly 
forward as to break its neck. 
Deer driving is seldom practised now in the Highlands except on the 
very largest estates at the end of the season when it is found necessary 
to move certain portions of the forest where the deer have become too 
numerous. Every year drives take place on Strathvaick, Mar, Balmacaan, 
Ballochbuie and a few other forests, but the sport, except as a spectacle, 
is not of a very high order, nor are the best heads killed in this manner. 
Too often the success of the day is spoilt by the shifting wind or by some 
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