44 FOREST CREATURES. 



presence. An examination which took place in the 

 month of August proved the diameter of such an egg to 

 be then -^-^ millemetre. Even on the 7th January, 

 when a quick development had already taken place, its 

 size was not larger than this o ; under the most favour- 

 able circumstances, a skilled and practised eye would be 

 necessary to discover so small an object, mixed up, too, 

 as it would be, with mucus, lymph, or any other fluid. 

 But if the investigation occurred a few hours only after 

 the death of the animal, the attendant difficulties were 

 very greatly increased; for, as with all game, the 

 intestines soon begin to decompose, the neighbouring 

 organs, in and around which the egg would be sought, 

 suffer from the contagion. Thus, the delicate tissues 

 Yfould no longer be in their habitual healthy state : and 

 it may be imagined, therefore, how great the difficulty 

 of seeking the diminutive globule amid a mass of 

 teemino' animal matter. 



o 



The result to which the investigations above alluded 

 to have led, are as follovvs. The rutting season of the 

 roe is at the end of July and in August ; this being the 

 only time when the organs of the male and female are 

 in such a state as to make procreation possible. 



In a few days, at most, after the rutting, the egg 

 progresses in the usual way through certain channels, 

 — a process unnecessary to describe here, — and then 



