534 Average 9, counts 492. Stags. The stock of two-year-old stags to go into count of 1891, as shown by our count and death rate, will be 155, unless something abnormal happens. It is impossible to count* all the stags, if ji they stood still to be counted which is often far from being ' the case we might leave out, say, 50 in such wide ground, viz. : 27,500 acres, with big hills in it. No doubt we counted some stags twice over in 1881, perhaps also in 1884 and in 1885, and in 1886 we probably missed seeing a good many. But taking the balance of errors, the average stock of Forest, by count, is 492 ; and by our calculation of births and deaths the average stock of Forest comes out 487. Estimates Taking the whole ground, including Ardfin, average by count is 687 stags, and by estimate 677 stags. We have unusual confidence in our count of 1889534 stags, it " came off" remarkably well, no doubt we missed some, but we c X > i8 hope we counted none twice over. I believe the estimate of forest stags, year by year, to be a much truer list than the counts, year by year indeed this is quite obvious ; but by sticking to the counts we gain knowledge. It is probably more difficult to make a good count of stags in July than it is to make a good count of