when Mr. Corballis shot it, and who had probably seen as many roe bagged H any single
shooter o f his day, said it was the best example o f Scotch roe he had ever seen. That on
the left lived in the Strathallan and Trinity-Gask woods, (Perthshire) for several years.
M y two uncles had Trinity-Gask at this Wime, and I saw the roe one day cross'fhe ride where
I was posted, but, alas ! too far out. M y father, however, got a shot at him m the next beat, -
and he was not seen again alive. Mr. P. D. Malloch, later in the same year, obtained the
head from the keeper and kindly presented it to me. He says it is the best that ever
passed through his hands. Its chief beauty is its thickness and pearly roughness, which
extends right up the horns. . ^
S have also the bestfjiree-horned roebuck that I have seen. Heads with three
coronets are not rare, but as a rule the third horn is merely a snag or thin spire. In this
case all three horns are well developed, though
one lacks the third point. It was found by Johnny
Ross at Beaufort. There is another head too that
is worthy of notice from the unusual size o f the
coronets and long brow points. Round each
coronet, 7 ! inches ; tape taken straight round both
coronets, 11 inches ; brow points, 4 f inches. It
was given to me by Dr. Ogilvie Grant o f Inverness,
and was shot near that town.
Though the feeding is so good at Cawdor,
and there are so many roe, a good head is seldom
obtained. T h e best normal head in the Castle was
shot by Lord Emlyn in 1-895 ; it is a good strong
head o f 9 inches with a 6-inch span. Several
three-horned examples have been killed at Cawdor,
one o f which is in the British Museum, but the
most remarkable specimen ever obtained there was
a buck which carried no less than four distinct
coronets with horns on them (see p. 219). It is -
1 2-po in t e r IN t h e po ssessio n o f m r . h . m . w a r r a n d ^ only British example o f such an abnormality
that I know A t o there are several German heads o f that description. I examined
this head just after it was skinned, and it certainly looked far better on tl-.e skull
than it now does as a stuffed specimen in the British Museum, for the hair almost
hides one o f the coronets and its little horn.
One o f the most curious things that strikes the sportsman and traveller is that
three houses— Beaufort Castle, Blair Castle, and Scone Palace— have no collections of
roe to speak of, particularly so as their past and present owners had every opportunity
o f making splendid ones had they.-wished to. A ll three contain just a few
very - ordinary heads, though each has one exception. The Duke’s smoking-room at
Blair contains a very thick but )|hort specimen that was killed by a retriever at
Strathord five or six years ago, and in Scone Palace there is one splendid head
of 11 inches, which would be perfect were the horns not so close together.
Mr. C. M. P. Burn sent me a photo o f his best heads some time ago, and amongst them
& a very fine 8-pointer with forked brows— a very rare type.
The best head killed in 1896 was certainly an extraordinary one as far as size went, but
one horn, io£ inches, was much bigger than the other, and the shape was poor. It was shot
by a poacher in Darnaway. Snowie kindly sent it to me to look at. The same year
Mr. H. M. Warrand killed an 1 i-inch head in Ross-shire, o f which he kindly sent me a
photo, but beyond its unusual length it was not good in any other respect.
T h e only Scotch 12-point roe head I have seen is now in the possession o f M r. Warrand,
and I was lucky enough to examine and sketch it just as this work was going to press. Such
a number o f points is indeed remarkable, and I
doubt i f there is another such example in Scotland.
A ll the points, though small, are genuine
points, capable o f fulfilling the old powder-horn
test. They are not in any way connected with
excrescences o f the roughings, which are sometimes
erroneously counted as points.- T h e history
o f this remarkable head is roughly as
follows. It was killed by a poacher in the
Gaick and Stillenham woods, just above the
factor’s house on the estate o f Ardross. The
keeper, however, caught the sinner in flagrante
delicto, znA. inflicted no other punishment beyond
seizing the carcass. T h e head has passed into
the possession o f the late Mr. Maclean, for many
years factor o f Ardross, and latterly, after remaining
some time in the widow’s hands, it has been
obtained by Mr. Hugh Warrand, who h,as kindly
furnished me with these details.1
A curious roe head (figured) with a double
coronet on the left horn was shot by Mr. George
Inglis at Newmore in Ross-shire in 1896. The
upper coronet is said to be the true .one, whilst the lower, which is very large, seems to
surround the pedicle and lie flat on the skull.
It is very remarkable how, in the case o f roe, any injury to the testicles seems to affect
the surface o f the horns rather than the beam o f the horn itself. An additional amount of
blood and osseous matter goes on travelling in a sort o f chronic state from the pedicles till
long after such a flow should have ceased. The result is, when the' injury is rather severe, to
produce great h e a v y horns, over which the roughings, which, as a rule, only are seen up
to a certain point, extend right to the very tips o f the points. These are commonly called
perruque • heads ; but I think that it is erroneous to class these solid-beamed heads with
examinee
:he possession of Ross, the head stalker at Amot, was said to have had 12 points, but having been seen and
riends in whose judgment I can place entire confidence, there is no doubt the number of points is exaggerated ;
of the roughings have been counted by mistake.