THE ROE. 31 



wont, and in an instant his fine sense of hearing would 

 detect if one of the sounds from your lips were not quite 

 like the preceding. There must be no discrepancy, 

 either in the tones or in their measure, if you would 

 outwit him. But if you do it well, and there be a buck 

 in the neighbourhood, he ^\-ill certainly make for the 

 spot whence the sound proceeds mth precipitate haste. 



To watch what I have elsewhere termed " the family 

 life " of forest animals is always interesting. In the 

 case of the roe it is a doubly pretty sight to see the 

 mother with her young, on account of the graceful form 

 and bearing of the actors in the nursery episode. The 

 mother will play mth her kid, bounding now towards 

 and now away from it ; and a favourite pastime seems 

 to be to pursue her little one or be pursued by it round 

 the stem of a tree. They thus will play at bopeep 

 together, and you may find trees in the forest round 

 the stems of which a circle is trodden in the o-round from 

 the merry racings of the happy playfellows. 



The kid when quite young will, if afraid, crouch like 

 a hare on the ground, bending back its ears upon its 

 spotted back. The white spots disappear in a few 

 weeks, and in colour it henceforward is like the parent 

 animal. The reddish broAvn coat becomes in autumn of 

 a less lively colour, and changes into a brownish grey. 

 The nose is always cold and wet : the throat is yellowish, 

 and the jaws of a light whitish grey. The roe, though 



