Mr. J. E. Harting on Forest Animals. 87 



the young of the other species, a^e at first spotted with 



white. 



A pure white roe-deer is a rarity, but is not altogether 

 unknown. One, in the collection of Sir James Colquhoun, 

 was obtained near Luss, on Loch Lomond ; and I have 

 heard of others in Germany. Occasionally one may see 

 a female roe-deer bearing horns; but such instances are, 

 of course, not common. ''= Mr. Duncan Davidson, of Inch- 

 marlo, Banchory, Aberdeenshire, shot a female roe-deer, 

 with budding horns, on the 26th October, 1875 ; and two 

 other such instances are mentioned in the Zoologist for 



1866 (p. 435). 



The roe is singularly liable to malformation of the 

 horns, and some curious collections have been made of 

 these misshapen antlers. 



Before dismissing the subject of Deer, I should like to 

 say something of the various modes of hunting them, past 

 and present, and refer to some of the quaint old treatises 

 which have been written on hunting. But time will not 

 permit, and I must pass on to another, and a very different, 

 group of animals — the Bodents, or gnawing mammals ; so 

 called from their mode of life, to which the form of their 

 teeth is admirably suited. 



So peculiar is the dentition of the Eodents that it 

 is not to be mistaken for that of any other group. 

 They have only incisors and grinders, no canines, and 

 never more than two efficient incisors in each jaw. 

 I say efficient because, in the hare and rabbit, and some 

 allied forms, there is in the upper jaw a second pair of 

 rudimentary incisors placed immediately behind the front 

 or cutting pair, which never become developed or used. 



The position and shape of the incisors proper are remark- 

 able ; they have no roots or fangs, but grow from a per- 

 manent pulp, and so continue growing through life. Their 

 form is that of a segment of a circle, hence they always 

 protrude from the front of the jaws in the same direction, 

 and meet at the same angle. By this means, as the teeth 



* The Field, Nov. 8th. 1873. 



