32 FOEEST CREATURES. 



SO slenderly formed, has sinewy and elastic limbs ; and 

 it bounds both high and far, as well for its pleasure as 

 when pursued. The tendons of the legs are unusually 

 thick for an animal of its size. Indeed a roe possesses 

 far more muscular strength than would be supposed. 

 Let even a strong man attempt to hold fast a buck and 

 prevent it escaping, he will find he has enough to do to 

 retain his prisoner. If he seize the animal by the horn, 

 he very possibly may repent his rashness. The rough- 

 ness of the surface will lacerate his fingers, and unless 

 he be very carefully on his guard, the infuriated animal 

 may send the forked points into his thigh or his 

 abdomen. 



They take the water readily, and are powerful swim- 

 mers. I have known them cross the rapid Danube 

 even where the current was strongest, and the breadth 

 of a good sized lake will not deter them from passing to 

 the opposite shore. 



As with red and fallow deer, there are also varieties 

 differing from the usual colour of the roe, sometimes 

 quite white, and, what is still more rare, sj)otted mth 

 white. 



A peculiarity of the roebuck is the frequent occur- 

 rence of an abnormal horn. There is no other wild 

 animal with which this deviation from a natural form is 

 so often found. Sometimes three and four instead of 

 two branches, ornament the head : now, instead of grow- 



