THE RED DEER 
of to-day, and such exceptional stags as were killed generally owed their 
excellence to the scarcity of deer in certain districts or to the superior 
condition of what are now known as the older forests. This is proved when 
we trace the history of any particular head of this period. The fine heads 
of St John and Landseer’s day were either obtained on some bits of sheep 
ground, where stags were scarce, or in some of the old forests such as 
Black Mount, Ardverikie or Atholl, which, fifty years ago, were in a far 
better grazing condition than they are to-day. “ If you only saw the aAvful 
amount of rubbish I used to have to set up in days gone by,” said the late 
William Macleay, of Inverness, to me one day, ‘‘ people would not talk 
such nonsense about the deterioration of Scottish deer.” That ” rubbish ” 
was nearly as plentiful as it is to-day is doubtless a fact, and also that 
the sportsmen of days gone by grossly exaggerated the quality of their 
trophies is another fact which may be pardonable, but is also true. How- 
ever, the all -levelling tape does not lie. I have seen and measured many 
of these ‘‘ old ” Black Mount and Atholl heads, the trophies won by Crea- 
lock, St John and Landseer, and none of them came above the standard 
of what we call “ good ” to-day, whilst the exceptional head of the highest 
class must have been just as rare then as it is to-day. Every season about 
six or eight high-class trophies over 36 inches, with perhaps 35 or 
36 inches span, are obtained, and such a head is grown only by one adult 
stag in every 1,000, and then only when he has good wintering, range, 
and food, combined with a good ‘‘ growing ” season. Many things 
are required to achieve the ‘‘ great ” trophy which must be, under the 
circumstances, always rare. The best trophies of to-day come from the 
‘‘ new ” forests, where the winters are mild and the grass is soft and sweet, 
or from forests that are well cared for and the deer heavily fed in winter. 
By well cared for I mean that the best and most promising deer are not 
harassed at the breeding season, and undesirable heads are properly 
shot down. The best forests for heads to-day, if we except woodland 
forests, are those in the neighbourhood of Strathglass, Glen Strathfarrar, 
Ardverikie, Strath Vaich, Meoble, Morar, Knoydart, Mamore, Affaric, 
Kintail, Berriedale, Sandside, Strathconan, Glenquoich and Glenkingie, 
North Uist, Ben Alder, and a few others. Many other forests produce 
exceptional trophies occasionally, but the average of heads is not so good 
as the first-named, as regular visits to Mr Macleay’s shop in Inver- 
ness will testify. Many of the best heads do not come into the staffer’s 
hands, but an annual inspection of the trophies in the hands of William 
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