ROE DEER. 305 



species never forms large herds like the Red Deer, 

 but is usually met with in pairs, or three together, 

 the male remaining with his mate all the year. Its 

 agility 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 morn- 

 ing and evening, often also at night, when it some- 

 times commits depredations on the corn-fields in the 

 neighbourhood of its haunts, and reposes by day 

 among the heath or fern, often, when not liable to be 

 much disturbed, selecting a spot to which it resorts in 

 continuance. The rutting season is in the end of 

 October, and the young, generally one, but some- 

 times two, are produced in the beginning of April. 

 The fawn is concealed in the thickets for some 

 weeks, remaining crouched among the herbage 

 during the absence of ite mother. It is of a reddish- 

 brown colour above, spotted with white in irregular 

 longitudinal bands. The young males have merely 

 tubercles the first year, a simple pointed snag the 

 second, an anterior antler the third, an antler and a 

 forked extremity the fourth ; beyond this period 

 there are no additional branches, but the horns in 

 crease in size until the seventh or eighth year. To- 

 wards the end of autumn the young separate from 

 their parents, remaining single or in small groups 

 until the next pairing season. The Roe is usually 

 shot in its haunts, sometimes by persons stationed 

 u 



