Red Deer 
45 
easily have reached the Stobhall side) he turned and swam back, after which he galloped 
away out of sight. What struck me as most curious was the way in which he carried 
himself during this swimming feat, the forepart of the body being depressed almost below 
the surface of the water, while the stern appeared above it. The more he used his hind legs, 
the lower went his head, dipping down at every stroke ; so how the creature could escape 
drowning in anything like rough water is more than I can say. 
Roe I have frequently seen swim, and am convinced that at such times their 
immersion in the water is deeper than that of almost any other animal. The whole of the 
body and most of the neck are submerged, the head alone being carried well clear of the 
water, and all the higher when forging forward under the influence of fear or excitement. 
The stoat, the polecat, and the weasel are all very powerful swimmers, and their 
position in the water is akin to that adopted by nearly all the mammalia, excepting 
that they move forward with the head and shoulders higher out of the water than 
other creatures, whilst the line of the back and tail are just on the surface. The rabbit 
is the same as the hare, and is a stern-wheeler, for he propels himself along with a certain 
slowness and deliberation. The head is just above water as well as, curiously enough, 
the whole of the rump and tail, whilst the hocks of the hind legs appear above the 
surface as he takes each fresh stroke. 
For so small an animal the squirrel is a rapid swimmer, and the angle at which the 
body is held is as curious as that of the rabbit. In his case most of the work is done 
with the fore legs, which beat the water with scurry and rapidity. The hind legs and 
tail sink far down below the surface 1 and appear to impede the progress. I doubt if the 
squirrel could undertake a swim of any great distance, and that is probably why they 
often prefer to cross rivers on pieces of driftwood, as I have seen them do. 
For the purpose of obtaining accurate pictures of the various modes in which the 
above animals swim, I had live specimens caught, and then rowed alongside them for 
some distance until I had made correct outline sketches. We all know how the rats, 
mice, and otters swim, so I do not think it necessary to figure them. All animals, too, 
which are frequently in the water have the power of elevating or depressing the body 
at will. 
The seeing powers of red deer are doubtless excellent, but unless the object they 
are looking at is in process of movement, they are, I think, in this matter but little, if at 
all, superior to man. They are also inferior in this respect to roe and fallow deer, and 
infinitely so to the various surface-feeding ducks and wild geese. Every stalker has 
had wild deer staring him in the face, in full view within 8 or io yards, without their 
finding out that he was a man until he began to move. Roe, of course, will do the same, 
hut if there is the very smallest movement on the part of the stalker (I am speaking of the 
1 Whilst on the subject of swimming, a curious thing happened one day in December 1891 when I was shooting at 
Foyers, on the Loch Ness side. A wood along the loch-side was being driven, and there were a nice lot of birds coming forward. 
Just at the end some twenty pheasants rose, and five or six of them, instead of coming on or breaking back, attempted to 
cross the lake, which was like a sheet of glass. They could not, however, manage it, as the distance to Glen Urquhart was 
over a mile, and we saw them all alight on the water three-quarters of the way across. The stupid birds, however, instead 
of swimming the last few hundred yards to safety, immediately turned homewards to the Foyers side again, and were met 
half-way across by the boat that had been sent to pick them up. 
