ROE DEER. 183 



There are a great many roe deer in the forest, which 

 feed chiefly in the woods, or on the moor immediately 

 adjoining them, but are never seen far out on the hills. 

 They do not unite in herds, but live in separate families. 

 In favourable seasons, about one roe out of five or six will 

 produce two fawns.* As a singular proof of their attach- 

 ment to their young, I here transcribe an occurrence that 

 has been obligingly sent me by my eminent friend, Sir 

 David Brewster. 



" Near Belleville, in Inverness-shire, there is a finely 

 wooded range of rocks, containing Borlam'sf Cave; the 

 haunt of the last Highland cateran, who was proprietor of 

 Belleville. In cutting a path to this cave, one of the 

 party of Highland labourers, whom I took with me for 

 that purpose, asked me if I had seen the spaning (weaning) 

 tree of the roe deer, and pointed out one close by us, 

 which, but for this notification, would have fallen under 

 the axe. This tree was a small birch that stood nearly in 

 the middle of a regular oval ring, formed and trodden 

 down with the feet of the roe deer, who run round and 

 round the tree, followed by their young, in order to amuse 

 them at the time when they are weaned. My informant 

 assured me that he had seen the deer engaged in this 

 sport, and I have myself seen and shown to others the 

 footmarks of the old and young deer in different parts of 



* Various writers make the proportion of twins much greater, but 

 this is Mr. John Crerar's calculation. 



f Tradition says, that, whilst this ruthless villain was in the act of 

 burying a man whom he had robbed and murdered, he was discovered 

 by a clansman, who rebuked him. Afraid of legal retribution, he 

 struck the intruder down with his spade, jammed him at once into the 

 earth, and buried both bodies in the same grave. 



N 4 



