THE ROE-DEER. 85 
The prints of the doe’s slender forked feet were thickly tracked about the 
hollow, and in the centre there was a bed of the velvet ‘fog,’ which seemed 
a little higher than the rest, but so natural that it would not have been 
noticed by any unaccustomed eye. I carefully lifted the green cushion, 
and under its veil, rolled close together, the head of each resting on the 
flank of the other, nestled two beautiful little kids, their large velvet ears 
laid smooth on their dappled necks, their spotted sides sleek, and shining 
as satin, and their little delicate legs as slender as hazel-wands, shod with 
tiny glossy shoes, as smooth and black as ebony, while their large dark 
eyes looked at me out of the corners with a full, mild, quiet gaze which had 
not yet learned to fear the hand of man.” 
The affection of the doe for its young is very strong, and, 
timid and feeble as it is by nature, inspired by danger 
threatening its offspring it becomes brave and daring, and in 
their defence will attack not only animals but men. When quite 
_ young the kid, if alarmed, will crouch like a hare on the ground, 
laying down its ears on its spotted back. 
One of the most singular points in the history of the Roe- 
deer is the abnormal gestation of the doe. It was well known to 
German foresters, to whom this animal is of course much more 
familiar than to keepers in this country, that the Roe-deer 
produced its fawns at the end of April or beginning of May, 
somewhat earlier than the fawns of the Red-deer and Fallow 
Deer are found,* and, although most people assumed that the 
rutting season was at the same time of year as with the larger 
Cervide (the Brothers Stuart, for example, were of this opinion, 
and even that great authority on wooderaft, Dietrich aus dem 
Winkell), German foresters asserted from observation that it was 
two months earlier, namely, in the month of August. If this 
were true, as it was proved to be by the late Dr. Ziegler, it seemed 
strange that the period of gestation should be two months longer 
than in the case of its larger relatives, and it was some time 
before the matter was explained. At length the researches of a 
well-known embryologist, Dr. Bischoff, Professor at the University 
of Munich, put the matter in a true light, and revealed a very 
curious and unexpected fact. From an examination of a consider- 
able number of does shot at various intervals between the months 
of August and May, he discovered that although the pairing 

* Cf. Harting, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1884, p, 152, 
