
THE ZOOLOGIST. 
THIRD SERIES. 
Vou. XIII.) MARCH, 1889. [No. 147. 
THE ROE-DEER, CAPREOLUS CAPREA. 
By tur Epitor. 
i (PiateE I.) 
THE presence in so many English Parks of herds of Fallow- 
deer, and in smaller numbers of Red-deer, has rendered the 
appearance of these two species tolerably familiar to most people, 
while the Red-deer, still a “‘ beast of chace,” is hunted with stag- 
hounds in England and Ireland, or falls to the rifle of the deer- 
stalker in Scotland. It is otherwise with the Roe-deer, whose 
appearance is less familiar, because the animal—in England, at 
all events—is much less common, while in Ireland it is quite 
unknown. It is curious that it should be so, for the Roe, 
like the Red-deer, is an indigenous British animal, while the 
Fallow has been introduced. The explanation, however, is to 
be found in the fact that while the Fallow-deer has been pro- 
tected in parks, where it is fed during the winter, and prevented 
by fences from straying away, the Roe has been suffered to 
take its chance, and has met with the fate which would naturally 
overtake any game animal of its conspicuous size and wandering 
disposition. : 
There was a time when it must have been common in all our 
English wood-lands, for there is abundant evidence, both geo- 
logical and historical, to show that it existed in widely separated 
localities in many different counties. Amongst these may be men- 
tioned Northumberland, Cumberland (whence Charles I. stocked 
ZOOLOGIST.— MARCH, 1889. H 
