MAMMALIA—ROEBUCK. 343 
So fleet is the roebuck, that it is nearly impossible to hunt him down: 
and such are his strength and wind, that he can run unexhausted for several 
hours. Should he, however, be at length pressed too closely, he resorts ta 
artifice. He retraces his footsteps, backwards and forwards, till nis turn- 
ings and windings have confused the scent; and, when this is accomplished, 
he springs aside at one vast bound, and lies flat on his belly among the 
grass and bushes, till the dogs have gone by; nor dces he make the least 
motion, even should they pass close to his nose. 
The roebuck differs from the stag, not only in superior cunning, but alse 
in his natural appetites, his inclinations, and his whole habits of living. 
Instead of herding together like the latter, the species of the former live mm 
separate families. The sire, the dam, and the young ones, form of them- 
selves a little community, nor do they ever admit a stranger into it. 
All other animals of the deer kind are inconstant in their affection. 
The roebuck never forsakes his mate; and, as they have been generally 
bred up together, the male and female fourm for each other the strongest 
attachment. 
The female of this species goes with young five months and a half, and 
brings forth about the end of April, or the beginning of May. The hind 
goes rnore than eight months; and this is a circumstance which alone suffi- 
ces to prove, that these animals are of a species so different, that they can 
never intermix, nor produce together an intermediate race. The female 
separates herself from the male, when she is about to bring forth, retiring 
into the thickest part of the woods, in order to avoid the wolf, which is her 
most dangerous enemy. At the expiration of about ten or twelve days, the 
fawns, of which there are generally two at a birth, attain strength enough 
to follow her. When she is threatened with any peril, she hides them in 
some deep thicket, offers herself to the danger, and allows herself to be 
chased in their stead. 
The fawns continue to foliow the buck and the doe eight or nine months 
in all; and, upon separating, their horns begin to appear, as those of the 
stag, the first year, simple, and without antlers. These they shed at the 
latter end of autumn, and renew during the winter. 
In the stag, the fallow deer, and the roebuck, there are two bony eminen- 
ces, on which their horns grow, which begin to shoot at the end of five or 
six months, and which, in a little time longer, arrive at their full growth; 
and, far from enlarging themselves as the animal advances in age, they 
diminish, and are even the most certain index for discovering, every year, 
the advanced age of all the species. 
As the female goes only five months anda half with young, and as the 
growth of the young roebuck is quicker than that of the young stag, so his 
life is shorter, and does not appear to extend beyond twelve or fifteen years, 
at the’ farthest. The roebucks remain in winter in the thickest coppices, 
and live on briars, broom, heath, &c. In spring, they repair to the more 
