20 6 
British Deer and their Horns 
years previous to 1892, and though roe-stalking was systematically carried out in August by 
the various tenants and their friends, (so far as I know) nobody ever obtained a shot at him 
until one day he met his end by a fluke. In both 1890 and 1891 Mr. Van Andre and Lord 
Wimbourne had kindly given me a day at Kiltarlity, and I very much wished to shoot this 
particular roebuck, which was called “ Old Queer Head ” by Johnny Ross. Each day, both 
morning and evening, we had seen him, and had made two or three stalks, but every time he 
vanished in a most mysterious way just as we were expecting to get a shot. 
In 1892 I was again with Ross, and my first question was whether Old Queer Head was 
1 2 3 
SHAPE OF HORN-GROWTH DUE TO ENVIRONMENT 
These are three typical heads of roebucks which have lived in—i. A heavily-wooded country with much thick under cover and no open ground (Stobhall, 
Perthshire). 2. A part forest, part open country (Altyre, Elgin). 3. An open, rugged, and mountainous country, where the woods on the hill-sides are also 
fairly easy to get through (Beaufort, Ross-shire). The reader will notice the close-set and heavier horns of the more southern roe. The brows in Perthshire 
specimens are generally finer than those from Ross and Inverness, which are, however, as a rule, rougher and of better shape. The Altyre and Darnaway heads, 
when good, are perhaps the best of all, as they show an intermediate type which combines the beauties of both of the other two. (Author’s collection.) 
still to the fore, to which he replied in the affirmative, and that he was then actually in the 
wood within 200 yards of the house. 
It was in the dusk of a July evening, and from the door we saw Old Queer Head’s wife 
come out for her evening feed, and a moment later there was a “ ping ” in the wire fence, 
and the buck himself appeared. The rifle was out of its case and put together in a moment, 
and we crept down to a grassy mound as I congratulated myself on such an easy chance. 
But the rifle was hardly topping the hillock, and I had just made out his dim outline in the 
dusk, when there was a loud bark and the old villain was gone like a flash. Early next 
morning we were out in another direction, towards Auchnacliach, and on the way home I 
got a buck with a very good head. As the day was cool, we expected to find our old friend 
out and feeding at about 11 o’clock. 
