DEER KIND. 333 



As the stag frequents the thickest forests, and 

 the sides of the highest mountains, the roebuck, 

 with humbler ambition, courts the shady thicket, 

 and the rising slope. Although less in size, and 

 far inferior in strength to the stag, it is yet more 

 beautiful, more active, and even more courage- 

 ous : its hair is always smooth, clean, and glossy ; 

 and it frequents only the driest places, and of the 

 purest air. Though but a very little animal, as 

 we have already observed, yet when its young is 

 attacked, it faces even the stag himself, and often 

 comes off' victorious.* All its motions are elegant 

 and easy ; it bounds without effort, and continues 

 the course with but little fatigue. It is also pos- 

 sessed of more cunning in avoiding the hunter, is 

 more difficult to pursue, and, although its scent is 

 much stronger than that of the stag, it is more 

 frequently found to make a good retreat. It is 

 not with the roebuck as with the stag, who never 

 offers to use art until his strength is beginning to 

 decline ; this more cunning animal, when it finds 

 that its first efforts to escape are without success, 

 returns upon its former track, again goes forward, 

 and again returns, until by its various windings it 

 has entirely confounded the scent, and joined the 

 last emanations to those of its former course. It 

 then, by a bound, goes to one side, lies flat upon 

 its belly, and permits the pack to pass by very 

 near without offering to stir. 



But the roebuck differs not only from the stag 

 in superior cunning, but also in its natural ap- 



* Buffon, vol. xii. p. 75. 



