332 ANIMALS OF THE 



seldom fat, is considered as a great delicacy, and 

 the hunter is well rewarded for his trouble. 



THE ROEBUCK. 



THE Roebuck is the smallest of the deer kind 

 known in our climate, and is now almost extinct 

 among us, except in some parts of the Highlands 

 of Scotland. It is generally about three feet long, 

 and about two feet high. The horns are from 

 eight to nine inches long, upright, round, and 

 divided into only three branches. The body is 

 covered with very long hair, well adapted to the 

 rigour of its mountainous abode. The lower part 

 of each hair is ash colour ; near the ends is a 

 narrow bar of black, and the points are yellow. 

 The hairs on the face are black, tipped with ash 

 colour. The ears are long, their insides of a pale 

 yellow, and covered with long hair. The spaces 

 bordering on the eyes and mouth are black. The 

 chest, belly, and legs, and the inside of the thighs, 

 are of a yellowish-white ; the rump is of a pure 

 white, and the tail very short. The make of this 

 little animal is very elegant, and its swiftness 

 equals its beauty. It differs from the fallow-deer 

 in having round horns, and not flatted like theirs. 

 It differs from the stag, in its smaller size, and the 

 proportionable paucity of its antlers ; and it dif- 

 fers from all of the goat kind, as it annually sheds 

 its . head, and obtains a new one, which none of 

 that kind are ever seen to do. 



