126 



CLASS MAMMALIA 



in preference to grazing, and thereby commit some 

 damage in the forest. No art can completely tame them, 

 their distrust remains invincible. Mr. Bewick relates a 

 remarkable anecdote of one, which, being hunted out of 

 Scotland, through Cumberland, and various parts of the 

 north of England, at last took refuge in the woody recesses 

 bordering on the Tyne. It was repeatedly seen and hunted, 

 but no dogs were equal to its speed : it frequently swam 

 the river, and, either by swiftness or artifice, eluded all pur- 

 suers. It happened during the rigour of a severe winter, that 

 being pursued, it crossed the river upon the ice with some 

 difficulty, and being much strained by its violent exertions, 

 was taken alive. It was kept for some weeks in the house, 

 and was then again turned out, but all its cunning and 

 activity were gone; it seemed to have forgotten the places of 

 its former retreat, and after running some time, it lay down 

 in the midst of a brook, where it was killed by the dogs. 



According to Captain Williamson a species or variety of 

 Roebuck exists in India. He says that " The Roebuck is 

 not unknown in Bengal, but is only found on the borders, 

 particularly along the western frontier among the crags and 

 ravines. It is found in elevated situations, but in general 

 is extremely shy, and frequents such covers as are divided 

 into small patches. They do not grow near so large as I 

 have seen them in Scotland." 



The Fossil Roebuck. Horns and fragments of a species 

 of Deer which appears to belong to this group, have been 

 found in calcareous marie in the environs of Orleans, with 

 fragments of Paleotherium and Mastodon, and in the peat 

 earth of the Somme, in France. The latter are decidedly of 

 the true Roebuck, but there is a difference in the teeth of 

 the upper jaw of the former sufficiently marked to dis- 

 tinguish them specifically and almost generically from the 

 whole genus, and approaching, especially by the two first 



