88 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
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are only bags of bones covered with dark dry flesh, without a 
particle of fat. 
The summer coat begins to change for the winter one in 
September, being complete in November, before which time no 
Roes should be shot. Red-deer stags, on the contrary, never 
come into prime order until they are divested of the winter grey 
and have assumed the rich red of the sporting season. 
When the woods are thick with leaves, it is very difficult to 
force a Roe into open ground at all; but instinct also warns it 
not to come into view when at its weakest state. Thus, whether 
for sport or food, the Roe should never be hunted except for the 
short time they are, or ought to be, in their prime; and if this 
rule be broken they will equally disappoint the shooter and the 
gourmand. An adult Roebuck will measure from twenty-five to 
thirty inches at the shoulder, and weigh from forty to fifty pounds. 
In Dorsetshire bucks killed in February, when in good condition, 
have been found to weigh as much as seventy pounds. 
Occasionally a white Roe has been met with, but so seldom 
as to cause considerable comment amongst sportsmen, and 
particular notice in the journals devoted to sport and natural 
history. One shot near Luss, on Loch Lomond side, is preserved 
in the collection of Sir James Colquhoun, and another may be 
seen amongst the sporting trophies of the Margrave of Baden, 
at Zwingenberg Castle, on the Neckar. 
The habits of the Roe-deer, as observed in Scotland, have been 
well described by the brothers Stuart.* 
“Like the Red-deer, Roe seek a change of places at various seasons, 
and it is essential to their condition. In the mountain forests, however, 
they do not ascend like Red-deer to the heights, but frequent more generally 
the braes, the woods, and lower pastures. In fine dry weather they lie out 
in the heather like hares, and nearly as closely. Like all wild herbivorous 
animals, their feeding-time is from a little before dawn until the sun grows 
hot, and from sunset until night. During the day they ruminate, or sleep 
in the deep brackens, heather, blaeberries, or other small coverts, or 
stand, like horses, in open woods and thickets. In winter they draw in 
from the hills and moors to the woods and coppices, and as the severity of 
the season increases, pass down. the country from the higher to the lower 
shelters, to which, if a large and tranquil forest, they will resort for twenty 
* ‘Lays of the Deer Forest,’ vol. ii. p. 149, &e. 
