MAMMALIA-ROEBUCK. 343 



So fleet is the roebuck, that it is nearly impossible to hunt him down : 

 and such are his strength and wind, that he can run unexhausted for several 

 hours. Should he, however, be at length pressed too closely, he resorts to 

 artifice. He retraces his footsteps, backwards and forwards, till his turn- 

 ings and windings have confused the scent; and, when this is accomplished, 

 he springs aside at one vast bound, and lies flat on his belly among the 

 grass and bushes, till the dogs have gone by ; nor does he make the least 

 motion, even should they pass close to his nose. 



The roebuck differs from the stag, not only in superior cunning, but also 

 in his natural appetites, his inclinations, and his whole habits of living. 

 Instead of herding together like the latter, the species of the former live in 

 separate families. The sire, the dam, and the young ones, form of them- 

 selves a little community, nor do they ever admit a stranger into it. 

 All other animals of the deer kind are inconstant in their affection. 

 The roebuck never forsakes his mate ; and, as they have been generally 

 bred up together, the male and female form for each other the strongest 

 attachment. 



The female of this species goes with young five months and a half, and 

 brings forth about the end of April, or the beginning of May. The hind 

 goes more than eight months ; and this is a circumstance which alone suffi- 

 ces to prove, that these animals are of a species so different, that they can 

 never intermix, nor produce together an intermediate race. The female 

 separates herself from the male, when she is about to bring forth, retiring 

 into the thickest part of the woods, in order to avoid the wolf, which is her 

 most dangerous enemy. At the expiration of about ten or twelve days, the 

 fawns, of which there are generally two at a birth, attain strength enough 

 to follow her. When she is threatened with any peril, she hides them in 

 some deep thicket, offers herself to the danger, and allows herself to be 

 chased in their stead. 



The fawns continue to follow the buck and the doe eight or nine months 

 in all ; and, upon separating, their horns begin to appear, as those of the 

 stag, the first year, simple, and without antlers. These they shed at the 

 latter end of autumn, and renew during the winter. 



In the stag, the fallow deer, and the roebuck, there are two bony eminen- 

 ces, on which their horns grow, which begin to shoot at the end of five or 

 six months, and which, in a little time longer, arrive at their full growth ; 

 and, far from enlarging themselves as the animal advances in age, they 

 diminish, and are even the most certain index for discovering, every year, 

 the advanced age of all the species. 



As the female goes only five months and a half with young, and as the 

 growth of the young roebuck is quicker than that of the young stag, so his 

 life is shorter, and does not appear to extend beyond twelve or fifteen years, 

 at the farthest. The roebucks remain in winter in the thickest coppices, 

 and live on briars, broom, heath, &c. In spring, they repair to the more 



