i 22 
British Deer and their Horns 
Now what has been the experience of one of these ? He has perhaps seen one or two 
Highland forests where the deer were miserably poor, listened to after-dinner chatter, and 
simply followed the voice of the flying day in such matters. Had he listened a little less 
and seen a little more, I think his opinion would not have been quite so hastily formed. 
The late Mr. William Macleay of Inverness, a Highlander of broad mind and excellent 
judgment, through whose hands, for over thirty years, the cream of the Scotch heads had 
passed, used to laugh at such critics and say, “ Why, if they only saw the rubbish that used 
to come into my hands when I first started business here, it might open their eyes. About 
once , or twice, in a season we used to get a c clinker,’ certainly as good, and better than the 
best nowadays. But as for the average being better than to-day, it is perfect nonsense.” 
I think that the reason of so much talk about the deterioration of Scotch heads has its 
origin in the gun-rooms of those forests where really good heads were occasionally obtained, 
and where they are now no more. From neglect, overstocking, or fencing in where there is 
no shelter, owners have in many cases ensured quantity at the expense of quality. Thirty 
years ago the stretch of forests ranging from Inchbae and Wyvis to Rhidorroch was famous 
for its heads ; to-day there is an enormous quantity of deer there, but season after season 
hardly any respectable heads are obtained in the whole district. Many other tracts of 
country could be named, and in all such forests where the heads have suffered, stalkers will 
talk and make assertions that their case is that of all. But fortunately there are, on the other 
hand, many forests where, by judicious treatment, the heads have not suffered, and in some 
cases are immeasurably superior to what they used to be, whilst on the newly-cleared sheep 
grounds heads are always good. 
During a lifetime, more than half of which has been spent in the Highlands, I have at 
different times visited almost every important collection of stags’ heads in Scotland. In 
addition to this, during the last ten years I have seen (sometimes once or twice in a season) 
the whole of the heads that have passed through the hands of Messrs. Macleay and Snowie 
of Inverness, Mr. P. D. Malloch of Perth, and Messrs. Small and Hope of Edinburgh, 
and the London taxidermists. The one question which suggests itself to me with regard to 
all these vaunted heads of olden days is—if they ever existed in any numbers, where on earth 
can they have all gone to ? Just here and there I have, in some Highland castle, come across 
a wonderful head killed at the beginning or middle of this century which certainly is better 
than those of to-day ; but I could count them all on my fingers, and I am not one of those 
that believe that on the whole Highland heads have deteriorated much or are deteriorating 
where common sense is used and due precautions are taken. These are the days of the new 
forests, and they produce the good heads. Many of the oldest and once famous grounds are 
worn out and over-stocked. 
Individual heads are not what they used to be, and perhaps, taking Scotland all over, the 
average is not nearly so good in either beam or points ; but to-day I maintain that a far greater 
proportion of first-class heads pass into the stuffer’s hands than ever did in former times, but 
then this is to a great extent accounted for by the very large number of beasts killed. 
Every object of art or nature is good or bad by comparison. What a wee Lews Royal is 
to a big-headed park stag, so is the latter to the real monarch that lived in our peninsula in 
Pleistocene times. The deterioration of the red stag has practically been going on ever since 
