2722 Quadrupeds. 



heard of Felis maniculata occurring in England : it is a Nubian species, discovered 

 by Ruppell, and the only connexion of the name with British cats is in the hypothe- 

 sis suggested by Temminck, that all domestic cats were possibly referrible to this new 

 species as the aborigo. This hypothesis, however, is a mere guess originating in the 

 desire to trace domesticated quadrupeds to wild sources. — Edward Newman.] 



Note on the Roe Deer (Cervus capreolus). — In Dorsetshire, Mr. Bell, in his de- 

 lightful ' History of British Quadrupeds,' p. 40!>, says " the roebuck is now rarely 

 met with in England." At Milton Abbey, the magnificent seat of the Right Hon. 

 the Earl of Portarlington, we have a herd of somewhat like fifty in our plantations, 

 and are yearly regularly hunted by a pack of hounds kept in the neighbourhood by a 

 gentleman. Some of them are exceedingly tame, while others are quite the reverse : 

 and it is a notorious fact in this county, that if a deer should perchance be found at 

 any distance, even if twenty miles, by the hounds, it makes its way for its protected 

 home, the Milton Park coppices, to which they do considerable damage, particularly 

 in some winters, by browsing the young and tender shoots of the hazel ; still in these 

 hilly woods and coppices they find a protection from hounds and guns. They are ex- 

 tremely graceful and active, leaping with the greatest vigour, and to a considerable 

 height : I have seen them leap a wall eight feet high with apparent ease. They 

 bring forth one and sometimes two young : when there are two, it rarely occurs but 

 that there is one of each sex : I remember an instance in which I met with two female 

 fawns. They are generally brought forth in the skirt of the coppice, particularly 

 amongst brambles and long grass, should there be such, and after being carefully at- 

 tended by the parent shift for themselves ; but I can never make out that the offspring 

 of one female attach themselves to each other, as stated by almost all writers on this 

 subject, and I have for the last four years paid some considerable attention to the sub- 

 ject, nor can I prove that they do not ; yet it is perfectly true that the buck attaches 

 himself to one female, and protects her from others. They generally pair in Novem- 

 ber, and the female goes with young five months. In about a week after they are 

 born, the young may be seen by the side of the dam, feeding in the low covers and 

 outskirts of the coppice. They seem to be for ever on the alert, night and day ; for in 

 all my rambles I have never met with them at rest. In the dusk of the evening they 

 may be seen bounding over the hedges, to feed on the young wheat, &c. ; and in au- 

 tumn on turnips, both tops and roots. I have seen as many as ten in a field at one 

 time, taking no notice, only every now and then keeping a sharp eye, as if watching 

 my movements. I have frequently sat on a fixed chair in the woods till they have 

 been within ten yards of me, when I have sharply with my foot stamped the ground ; 

 in an instant they have bounded off, jumping as much as twenty feet at one bound, 

 utterino- their cry of baa baa as loud as the bark of a dog. and sometimes louder, till 

 they are fairly out of sight and reach : some of the more bold will — after taking three 

 or four bounds — stand, and turn round and look at the object of its terror with asto- 

 nishment, when off it goes again, crying baa baa. It is a mistaken idea to suppose 

 they cannot be properly tamed : twenty years ago, in Scotland, I have had them as 

 tame as a dog, and they followed me after the same manner ; also the young of the 

 red deer. While on this subject, it may not be out of place here to relate the fol- 

 lowing circumstance. The late General Campbell, of Menzie, in Perthshire, had a 

 red deer, a buck (Cervus elaphus, L.), so tame that it was in the habit of following hiin 

 to church, and frequently up the stairs of the mansion : he was quite at liberty to roam 

 where he pleased, and in frolic gave many people a knock over, till one clay, happen- 



