3-034-583 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Months: August, 1871. '...a scene which transports one straight to the heart of the Highlands...There are few quadrupeds which present so noble an appearance as the red deer. The easy elegance of his form, the lightness of his motions, the soft and sensible sparkling of his eye...the size, the strength, and the swiftness of this beautiful creature, all sufficiently rank him among the most noted objects of human curiosity. The senses of smelling and hearing in this animal are very acute. When he is in the least alarmed he lifts the head and erects the ears, standing for a few minutes as if in a listening posture. Whenever he ventures upon some unknown ground or quits his native covering he first stops at the skirt of the plain to examine all around: he next turns against the wind, to examine by the smell if there be any enemy approaching...The red deer is capable of being tamed, and even trained to draw a carriage...Some persons consider a haunch of red deer equal to that of the fallow deer; but, generally speaking, the flesh is coarser...Some black-game are also represented in our Illustration...In the Highlands of Scotland the blackcock is abundant'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.