DANGER OF WOUNDED STAGS 157 
objects on which to make a start, and advanced 
with lowered head. B. threw a stone and hit 
it in the flank ; but this had no effect, and the 
animal advanced a few paces nearer and stood 
swaying its head from side to side a few inches 
off the ground. As some one had to go and the 
stag seemed disposed to give no quarter, B. fired 
a shot, but without effect. The stag still advanced, 
until a second shot took him in the chest and 
finished him off. I saw him the next day where 
he had fallen. He had a small head of six points, 
and was obviously a young beast." 
There are no doubt rare instances of a wounded 
stag attempting to attack a man.^ I myself have 
never known such an instance, and, although I have 
often asked old stalkers whether they have ever 
known of anything of the kind, I have only once 
met with any one who has had such a personal 
experience. The head stalker of a well-known 
forest recently told me that on two occasions he 
had known of wounded stags attacking a man. 
The story of his experiences interested me so 
much that I asked him to write it down in his 
^ In One Hundred Years in the Highlands, p. 132 (Edward Arnold, 
London, 1921), Mr. Osgood Mackenzie quotes an extract from a diary of 
his uncle. Dr. John Mackenzie of Eileanach, in which an incident of this 
kind is described as having occurred in Kinlochewe Forest. 
