56 THE ROE 



become wholly extinct in the Scottish Highlands ; but 

 they seem to have entirely disappeared from the 

 Lowlands and from England and Wales. The roe 

 which are so abundant in certain parts of Galloway are 

 descended from some which the first Marquess of Ailsa 

 was at pains to introduce to his woods at Culzean, in 

 Ayrshire, early in the nineteenth century. These 

 multiplied so exceedingly and wrought so much mis- 

 chief on trees and crops that an edict was issued 

 for their destruction. It is recorded that between 

 six or seven hundred were shot in the first year of 

 persecution. 



Though I have killed many a red stag in my time 

 without feeling a trace of compunction, I never shot but 

 one roe-deer, nor could I ever bring myself to draw a bead 

 again upon one of these beautiful animals. Even Charles 

 St. John, who shed without ruth the blood of so many 

 wild animals, including that angelic creature the wild 

 swan, could not always bring himself to fire at a roe. 

 ' I watched a roe,' says he, ' stripping the leaves of a 

 long bramble shoot. My rifle was aimed at his heart 

 and my finger was on the trigger ; but I made some 

 excuse or other to myself for not killing him, and I left 

 him undisturbed. His beauty saved him.' 



Nevertheless, no tender mercy intervened to hinder 

 me from passing sentence of death upon five roe which 

 found their way into our flower-garden last autumn. 

 It is not what the roe eats that is most aggravating ; 

 it is the habit of the buck to choose one's choicest 

 young conifer to rub the velvet off his horns withal. 

 The bark is rubbed off more easily than the velvet, and 

 the tree dies. 



