THE ROE-DEER, OR THE ROEBUCK. 



THIS interesting little woodland deer has 

 managed to hold its own in a completely 

 wild state throughout many areas from which the 

 red deer are long since gone, and it can be said to 

 be fairly evenly distributed throughout the Scottish 

 mainland. In the Lowlands it is particularly 

 abundant to the west of Dumfries, and it is to be 

 seen almost any day in the forests of Kirkcudbright- 

 shire and Ayrshire. In the Highlands it has, of 

 course, free run of the wild. It exists also in 

 Cumberland and the New Forest. 



With regard to the last-named reserve, fallow deer 

 are perhaps most characteristically representative 

 of the deer family, though roe are probably most 

 abundant. There are few red deer in the Hamp- 

 shire Forest, and those that exist there confine 

 themselves chiefly to the north end of the reserve. 



We have not far to search for the cause of the 

 survival of the roebuck. In the first place, it is a 

 woodland deer, and therefore is less subjected to 

 the weeding-out process inflicted by the elements 

 than the red. It is hardier than the fallow, which 

 probably would not survive in this country very 

 long unless artificial means were resorted to in the 

 way of winter feeding, whereas the roe will flourish 

 almost anywhere. The chief reasons for its com- 

 parative abundance are, however, that it carries 

 not the noble head of its congener, and that it is 

 regarded by country-folk as hardly worth killing as 

 an article of food. So little molested, indeed, are 

 the roe-deer in most of the Scottish forests that in 

 the ordinary way they are quite easily approached. 



