40 THE ROE-DEER, OR THE ROEBUCK. 



they seemed most foolish as by their possession 

 of a subtle instinct which rendered them almost 

 impossible subjects for the photographer. I was 

 tolerably familiar with their breaks, runways, and 

 resting-places, which they were seen to use daily. 

 On an appropriate occasion a camouflaged cotton- 

 thread, invisible to the human eye until it was 

 actually touched by the hand, was stretched across 

 their path. The camera was then hidden twenty 

 or thirty yards away ; on one occasion it was built 

 into a wall, on other occasions it was literally 

 buried in bracken and moss, while every precaution 

 was taken against tell-tale scent. Regularly a 

 box to curtain the camera was hidden for the deer 

 to become used to long before the camera was 

 placed inside it. 



Immediately the cotton was touched the shutter 

 of the camera was electrically tripped, but I never 

 succeeded in inducing the deer thereby to make 

 an exposure. True, we got several photographs 

 one of the keeper, one of his dog, and an excellent 

 likeness of the local rabbit-catcher, but never of 

 the roe. Many times I have watched them 

 approach to within a few feet of the cotton, then 

 turn hesitatingly aside, leaving their beaten run- 

 way to cross the burn by a seldom frequented 

 break. 



The keeper on this particular reserve told me 

 that in the days when it was customary to trap 

 hen-pheasants by means of the slide-door and a 

 long length of cord, he has repeatedly seen roe 

 approach the cord till they almost touched it, then 

 suddenly turn back. What, then, the roe lacks 

 in sagacity it certainly makes up by the posses- 

 sion of an uncanny suspicion and quickness of 

 conception. 



