Fallow Deer 
*43 
very rich feeding, which seems always close and sweet even till late in winter. It must be of 
exceptional quality to keep the deer in such fine condition, as there is little other variety of 
food but grass. The great difficulty nowadays with a first-class herd of this description is to 
get new deer that are of equal quality with those at present in the park. 
The best fallow deer in Scotland actually enclosed are those of Drummond Castle, Perth¬ 
shire. This herd, numbering about four hundred, live under almost semi-feral conditions, and 
are much wilder than English park deer. When I was told of their remarkable weights I 
could hardly credit them at first, as they were said to be so much in excess of any English 
fallow deer. Lord Ancaster, however, kindly said I should have a day at them this year 
(1896) if I was in the North, and be able to weigh and examine them for my own satisfaction. 
Accordingly, one fine morning in September I went to Crieff and drove out to the park. 
Though we soon found the bucks, I had considerable difficulty in getting nearer than 200 
yards, and as they “ bunched,” as they always do, we could not pick out the best. It was two 
IN THE SUNSHINE 
o’clock in the afternoon before I got a good chance within 80 yards at them. They were 
moved towards me up a pass, and I dropped the leading buck ; then followed three more 
shots, and I had another good buck and two more badly wounded, which were soon finished. 
We took these bucks at once to the slaughter-house, and I personally superintended the 
weighing of the best one, and also took the measurements myself. The English mode of 
weighing bucks dressed conveys but little idea to the sportsman, so I weighed this buck 
according to the Highland method—that is, abstracting heart, liver, lights, and throttle, as 
well as the usual gralloch. 
Weight (as he fell) ...... 
Weight clean (without heart, liver, lights, and throttle) 
Weight of liver and heart ..... 
Length from nose between horns and down the back to tip of tail 
Height at withers ...... 
Girth behind shoulders ..... 
15 stone 6 lbs. 
12 stone 5 lbs. 
9 lbs. 
70 inches 
39 inches 
44 inches 
The other 
stone apiece. 
three bucks were little inferior to this, and would probably have turned 12 
The feeding in Drummond Castle is particularly luxuriant, and there has been 
