A NEW WONDER IN NATURAL HISTORY. 47 



as in the month of August, which is the known period of 

 the rut. It was the first time I had heard of the buck 

 being shot in this manner so late in the year. When 

 we take into consideration the discovery of Dr. Ziegler, 

 as to the condition of certain organs of the roebuck 

 during the winter months, this passionate state of the 

 animal adds another enigma to the question still 

 remaining to be solved. Whence proceeds this lust, 

 and to what does it tend ? For young roes are not 

 found at different seasons of the year. The time of 

 their birth is at one season only, a proof that there is 

 really but one season for the rut, but one season at 

 which the conception of the doe begins. 



This display of concupiscence on the part of the 

 roebuck at the very end of November is also a devia- 

 tion from the law which seems to govern those animals 

 which shed and reproduce their horn. It has been 

 shown in the paper on the Stag how intimately con- 

 nected the growth of this ornament is with the organs 

 of the generative system. And we know also that, both 

 with the red and fallow deer, it is only when the new 

 antler has attained its complete state, and rises above 

 the animal in all its pride and beauty, that the creature 

 is in its fullest strength, when coming forth from the 

 recesses of the forest, robust in body, and with an or- 

 ganisation fitted to answer all the demands which its 

 impetuous male instincts are about to make upon it. 



