334 ANIMALS OF THE 



petites, its inclinations, and its whole habits of 

 living. Instead of herding together, these ani- 

 mals live in separate families ; the sire, the dam, 

 and the young ones associate together, and never 

 admit a stranger into their little community. All 

 others of the deer kind are inconstant in their 

 affection ; but the roebuck never leaves its mate ; 

 and as they have been generally bred up together 

 from their first fawning, they conceive so strong 

 an attachment, the male for the female, that they 

 never after separate. Their rutting season con- 

 tinues but fifteen days, from the latter end of Octo- 

 ber to about the middle of November. They are 

 not at that time, like the stag, overloaded with 

 fat; they have not that strong odour which is 

 perceived in all others of the deer kind ; they 

 have none of those furious excesses ; nothing, in 

 short, that alters their state ; they only drive 

 away their fawns upon these occasions, the buck 

 forcing them to retire, in order to make room for 

 a succeeding progeny : however, when the copu- 

 lating season is over, the fawns return to their 

 does, and remain with them some time longer; 

 after which they quit them entirely, in order to 

 begin an independent family of their own. The 

 female goes with young but five months and a 

 half; which alone serves to distinguish this ani- 

 mal from all others of the deer kind, that con- 

 tinue pregnant more than eight. In this respect, 

 she rather approaches more nearly to the goat 

 kind ; from which, however, this race is separat- 

 ed by the male's annually casting its horns. 



