ROE-DEER 251 



jnto Dorsetshire, where they are now fairly common in the 

 woods on the south side of the Blackmoor Vale. A few like- 

 wise exist in the woods about Virginia Water, as also in Ptt- 

 worth Park, Sussex, while in 1884 a number were turned down 

 in Epping Forest, where the species had long ceased to exist. 

 Regarding the Roes of Naworth, near Brampton, in Cumber- 

 land, the Rev. H. A. Macpherson writes that only a few now 

 remain, " and a few more wander through the plantations of 

 the Netherl)y property. On some rare occasions these animals 

 have been known to cross the Eden, and even to wander up 

 the valley of that river into the neighbourhood of Penrith." 

 In Wales the Roe is stated to have lingered as late as the 

 reign of Queen Elizabeth. 



Although in Scotland the Roe is less widely distributed than 

 it was in former times, the increase of plantations in the south 

 has led to its re-occupying districts where it was once exter- 

 minated; and this steady enlargement of its distributional 

 area is still going on. Into Mull it was introduced in the year 

 1865. In Argyllshire, Messrs. Harvie-Brown and Buckley state 

 that these Deer are much more abundant in the recently- 

 planted pine- and larch-woods than they are in the native 

 copses of oak, hazel, or birch ; a birch-clad glen of three or 

 more miles in length seldom containing more than from two to 

 four Roe at a time. 



Habits. — Essentially a forest-loving species, the Roe is a non- 

 gregarious Deer, usually consorting in parties of from two to 

 four head, and the two sexes remaining together throughout 

 the year. " Its agility," remarks MacgilHvray, "is astonishing, 

 for it will bound over a space of eight or ten yards with ease, 

 and leap a wall five or six feet high with scarcely an appearance 

 of effort. Its ordinary pace when not pursued is an easy 

 canter, but when alarmed it bounds along with great spirit and 

 grace. It feeds chiefly in the morning and evening, often also 



