' Now what has been the experience o f one o f these I B e has perhaps seen one or two
Highland forests where the deer were miserably poor, listened to after-dmner chatter, .turd
simply followed the voice o f the flying day in such matters. Had he listened a li
and seen a little more, I think his opinion would not have been qmteJHhastily formed.
The late Mr. William Macleay o f Inverness, a H igh lan d e r# broad mmd and excellent
judgment, through w h B hands-,.-for,over thirty years, the eream?| the "had
passed, used to laugh at such critics and say, B Why, i f they only saw the rubbish that B d
io come into my hands when I first started bjiSness here, it might open their eyes. About
once or twice, in a season we used to get a ‘ clinker,’ certamly as^good, and better than the
best’ nowadays. But as for the average being better than to-day, H perfect
I think that the reason o f l im u c h talk about the deterioration o f Scotch heads-has its
origin in the B— o f those" forests where really: good heads were pecasionally obtained,
and where they are now no more. From negect, overstocking, or fencing in where there is
no shelter, owners have in many oases ensured quantity at the expense’ of quality, t h i r t y
years ago the stretch B U B S ranging tfom Inchbae and Wyvis-.o Rhidorroch was famous
for its heads; to-day there is an enormous quantity o f deer there, but: season after season
hardly any respectable heads are obtained in the whole district. Many other tracts „o
country could be named, and in all such forests where the h e # J | y v e suffered, stalkers emit
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 m some
cases are immeasurably superior to what they used to be, whilst on the newly-cleared sheepgrounds
heads are always good. , r. , , . , , I
During a lifetime, more than h a l f# which S been spent in the Highlands, I have at
different t i f c s visited aim® every important collection d f ’ stags’ heads m -Scotland *
addition to this, during the last ten years I have Seen .jisometimes once or twice in a season)
the whole o f the heads that have passed through jt'he hands o f Messrs. Macleay a n i Bnowte
o f Inverness, Mr. P. DrfMalloch o f Perth, and M # p t Small and H o p ^ B p d in b u rg h ,
and thfelLondon taxidermist# The one q u # i*« which suggests itself to me with regard to
all these vaunted hiaSsmf olden days'-is^if they ever existed in any numbers, w h e r e g earth
can they have all gone t& f Just here and there I have, ijjgome H igh lan p a s tle , come^ross
a wonderfhl head killed at the beginning or m id d le# this century which certainly « better
than thoseHto-day ; but I could Igunt them all on my fingers, and I am not one^ f 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 o f the new
forests, and they produce the good heads,- Many o f 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 o f first-class heads passdinto th f stuffer’s hands than ever did informer times, but
then this is to a great extent accounted for by the very large number iif beasts killed.
Every object o f a r t B nature is good Or bad by comparison. What a wee Lews Royal V
to a big-headed park stag, # ! is the latter to the real monarch that lived in our peninsula in
Pleistocene times. The deterioration o f the red stag | § practically been going on ever since
those days, and columns o f print have been written, and will continue to be written, about
how we may improve our deer ; the joke o f it all is that every scientist, practical stalker, and
naturalist knows how it may be done, but also knows that the self-interest o f man w ill not
allow any suck thing to take place. I f proper measures were taken to ensure a return o f the
vanished monarchs, deer-stalking could then only be indulged in by one or two people, and
that would never do. Everybody nowadays wants to have the very largest deer and the
greatest possible quantity o f them for himself and his friends to shoot; and to cap all comes
the fatal yearly tenant system, for a sportsman paying a big rent very naturally skins the
place and spoils the forest as regards the heads. Perhaps, though, things are best, after all,
as they are, for the two main objects o f Highland deer-stalking are, first, the grand sport
and manly, recreation it affords to the well-to-do classes in Great Britain; and, secondly,
the congenial employment it gives to the people o f the soil.- Without a very great stock
o f deer such a condition o f things could not exist. Heads must therefore be only a
minor consideration ; but all should remember that, as the conditions o f wild-deer life have
altered so vastly within the past thirty years, it is a most suicidal and absolutely cruel
policy to maintain a large stock without very generous winter feeding. I f every proprietor
were to feed his deer in winter as lavishly as a certain tenant in the west o f Scotland does,
and were to plant woods in his barren glens, we should not hear half so much about the
deterioration o f heads, nor would any sportsman find that the stags were one whit easier to
shoot when the stalking season arrived.
W e have in the red deer of New Zealand a splendid example o f the manner in which
the animals may be improved in a very short time by the conditions which are most essential to
body and horn growth. T hey were only introduced into the North Island so late as 1850,
when some were turned out on the Nelson Hills. These were augmented shortly afterwards
by others sent by command o f H .R .H . the Prince Consort. Almost immediately the animals
increased and multiplied, but owing to the damage they did to cultivation, they were driven
back into a wild mountainous country about half the size o f Scotland.
T h e deer are now fairly numerous near the Maungaraki range, Wairarapa, and Cromwell
districts.' Stags run to as much as 28 stone clean, and after six years o f age carry heads of
great size, o f which the 18-pointer from Wairarapa owned by Mr. J. Handyside is a good
example.
My. uncle, Mr. Melville Gray o f Timaru, who has spent his life in New Zealand,
stalks these wild deer annually in the Cromwell district, and gives a capital account o f the
sport. T h e stalking is apparently o f a far more arduous nature than that o f our Highlands,
for the shooter, after he has spied his deer, has sometimes to make a climb o f several
thousand feet before he can get above them. Even then the ground above the scrub, to
which the deer resort in the rutting season, is covered with loose stones, which are set in
motion very easily and spoil many a stalk. Two good heads in a fortnight’s stalking are
considered a fair result on the higher ranges ; most o f the deer, however, are killed by stillhunting
in the scrub.
The case o f the wild Scotch stags which lived from the beginning o f this century till
1840 is almost parallel to that o f the deer existing in New Zealand to-day. They had a
really good range, splendid browsing and grazing, and few other deer to interfere with them ;
r 2