came to an untimely end. A t Black Mount alone some fifty stags were found lying dead %
the side o f Loch Tulla.
The shyness o f deer W proverbial, and yet, like other animals, they learn in time that
novelties are not necessarily enemies in disguise. The driver o f a donkey engine on the
West Highland line, when that railway was being constructed through the RanJ | h
told me some interesting facts as'to the way in which they gradually gok accustomed to the
trains. At first they would move clear away off the sky-line when the engine was at work,
so great was their horror o f the noise and steam. In time, however, the deer would even
feed within sight, though never descending the flats till nightfall. As months went by
they gradually began to accept the trains, as inevitable horrors, which, however, never moved
off a certain track, and at last they ventured to cjfs s under the line by means o f the culverts.
Now, I am told, deer are constantly seen on the Rannoch and Black Mount flats, feeding
within iWo yards o f the line, and merely raising their heads as the engine goes puffing by.
O f deep sleep— that “ gentle'thing beloved from pole .to pole ”— deer seem to have little
or no experience. Rarely indeed are they found fast asleep ; but James M-Cook, stalker at
Ben Alder, once actually caught hold o f a hind in that condition.
As to length o f life there is some differehce o f opinion, but, malgré numerous old
Highland adages implying that deer and eagles live for ever, most foresters o f experience are nowl!li that fro™ twenty to thirty years is the limit o f a stag!? life, whilst eighteÇÇjyears
are about 'as much as à park: stag ever attt&MjjWB Stags in parks R n m o n l y hqjm to
deteriorate at thirteen years, and in many cases show signs o f age, such as rotten horn tops and
weak brows, as early as twelve, Wild deer,f#owever, doubtless owing fp th e i r greater
hardihood, facilities- for ex er| || , and more frugal living, seldom show any falling-offi m horn
or hody till over fourteen or fifteen years. Their age limit may be-reckoned as much the
same as that o f the horse. In 1ÉI3 some twenty dS®- were brought Over from Arisaig by
B. Ross;ithe present keeper at Ardnamurchan, and, after being marked, were let loose in that
Mstést ;'and in 1881 Mr. A . Bum Murdoch, while shooting there, killed a very old stag
with one horn, which proved-to be one o f the animals® turned j § w n , and therefore at
least twenty-nine years old. On the other hand, I have séensÿ park-stag bearing all the:
marks o f age, such as poor quarteS'WWn tops, insignificant brows, and. decayed teeth, at
fourteen years pf age. Twenty years is the greatest age I have known a park hind live to, and
the animal in question was only skin and bone, as all her teeth were done for. -
An interesting note with regard to the age. pfr a hind is furnished in Mr. Henry
Evans’s excellent no||| on the wild deer o f Jura. He savs-
One o f these hinds had very psetaliar ears, : She was rather tame, and was seen constantly. Twenty-
two years ago she was a large hind with a good calf at "her side. In November 1889. she broke her neck by
falling down some rocks. She was then looking ragged and feeble, but had a calf at her side. She reared
twenty calves during the period o f twenty-one years’ observation has gone geld (or lost her calf) only
once during that long period, vîbsthe year before her death. She must have been » ; less than five years
old when first observed, for she was then a large hind with a.gpod calf at her side. Consequently, we
cannot set her down at less than twenty-six at her death. Her last calf died. 'This hind had a complete
set of teeth.
We know now that horns offer no signs by which we can determine age. Certainly
for the first few years o f life under wild conditions the head o f a stag should follow a regular
Cpiirse, but even then so many variations occur to the contrary that form or points are no
test.1 It is only by a study o f 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 o f age red deer o f 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. A t five years o f 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. T hey 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
o f deer, many curiously-devised traps were in existence for capturing them, particularly in
the extreme north o f 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 cu l de sac. T h e remains o f some o f these traps are
still to be seen on Little Ben Griam in Sutherlandshire, and in the Dunrobin Forest.
A stag m good condition, provided the season is one conducive to good horn-growth, should have his best head at twelve
years of age.