Red Deer 
55 
for the first few years of life under wild conditions the head of a stag should follow a regular 
course, but even then so many variations occur to the contrary that form or points are no 
test. 1 It is only by a study of the animal’s dentition that we can arrive at anything like 
accuracy, and then only up to maturity, which we may roughly place at six years. At one 
year of age red deer of both sexes have two cutting teeth in the lower jaw ; at two years they 
have four ; at three years six ; and at four years eight. At five years of age stags have two 
tusks in the upper jaw. Very old hinds also are sometimes furnished with these two tusks, 
though they are generally smaller. Old stags often have their front teeth missing and the 
grinders decayed and worn away. They are then generally in very poor condition ; not so 
hinds, whose teeth are perfect even to old age as a rule. 
Until recent times, and before the rifle played such an important part in the destruction 
of deer, many curiously-devised traps were in existence for capturing them, particularly in 
the extreme north of Scotland, whereby many deer could be caught at once. The herds 
were driven up the hills between two stone dykes set wide apart at the entrance, and then 
gradually contracting till they ended in a cul de sac. The remains of some of these traps are 
still to be seen on Little Ben Griam in Sutherlandshire, and in the Dunrobin Forest. 
1 A stag in good condition, provided the season is one conducive to good horn-growth, should have his best head at twelve 
years of age. 
THE DRINKING POOL, INVEREWE, ROSS, N.B. 
