44 THE ROE-DEER, OR THE ROEBUCK. 



together thereafter. Whether or not they remain 

 mated for life is difficult to say, owing to the fact 

 that their respective home-ranges overlap, and to 

 the difficulty in recognising individuals. Some- 

 times a doe and a buck and a fawn will be found 

 living together in midwinter ; sometimes a doe 

 and a fawn live unaccompanied by a buck ; some- 

 times a half-grown fawn will be found living alone. 

 One recognises the company rather than the indi- 

 viduals, and, having repeatedly seen three together, 

 it is very hard to tell, when one day a solitary roe 

 appears in the same place, whether it is one of the 

 three temporarily isolated, or whether it is a new 

 and habitually solitary specimen ; moreover, two 

 parties may unite, and remain united for some 

 days, so that out of the generous chaos and inter- 

 mixture one cannot easily arrive at just who is 

 whose. I am inclined to think that all the roe- 

 deer of a given locality are well acquainted and 

 on friendly terms with one another, and that the 

 individual couples are not inseparable during the 

 winter months, as they certainly are during 

 the summer. An almost adult fawn may leave 

 its parents for a brief period, and browse with 

 other deer to which it is not related, ultimately 

 rejoining its mother when she happens to pass 

 that way. This I have repeatedly noticed in the 

 Scottish Lowlands. 



It is a curious fact that, though mating occurs 

 in August, a pregnant female shows no signs of 

 her pregnancy till late in winter, when the develop- 

 ment of the calf begins. It is born early in May 

 a period of nine months' gestation, as compared 

 with eight months in the case of the larger red 

 deer. The fawns are spotted when first born, but 

 the spots fade during the first year of the animal's 



