28 FOEEST CREATURES. 



In severe winters the roe suffers greatly : it sinks 

 into the deep snow, and will often be found embedded 

 therein up to the flanks, dead from exhaustion in its 

 efforts to get out. It is unable to bear up against 

 intense cold; and hence, after a bleak winter, the 

 number that have perished is always considerable. At 

 this season, too, it is exposed not only to the inclemency 

 of the elements, but also to a fierce, wily, unrelenting- 

 foe, ever on the alert and ready to follow on his track. 

 The fox — full of wiles — now prowleth about, seeking 

 what he may devour. Should he chance upon the slot 

 of a roe, he will follow it with light step over the thinly 

 crusted surface of the snow, and at last finds the 

 object of his search struggling in the drift through 

 which its small hoofs have sunken dov/n. " It's an ill 

 wind that brings good to none," thinks the fox as 

 he feasts upon his prize ; and, indeed, in a country 

 where game abounds, a season that to other animals 

 proves most fatal, for him is one of booty and good 

 cheer. 



In the rutting season the roebuck is most passionate 

 and impetuous. At such time it is dangerous to 

 approach him if in an enclosure, and many a time have 

 severe injuries been inflicted by a tame animal kept in 

 a garden or a paddock on those persons who were so 

 incautious as to enter there. The horns are very 

 sharply pointed, and as in his onsets they just reach to 



