22 WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS chap. 



facing the shouts and noise of the beaters to passing within 

 reach of a hidden danger, the extent and nature of which it has 

 not ascertained. By taking advaritage of the animal's timidity 

 and shyness in this respect;- 1 have frequently got shots at roe 

 in large woods by placing people in situations where the animal 

 could smell them but not see them, thus driving it back to 

 my place of concealment. Though they generally prefer the 

 warmest and driest part of the woods to lie in, I have some- 

 times when looking for ducks started roe in the marshy grounds, 

 where they lie close in the tufts of long heather and rushes. 

 Being much tormented with'ticks and wood-flies, they frequently 

 in the hot weathef betake themselves not only to these marshy 

 places, but even to the fields of high corn, where they sit in a 

 form like a hare. Being good swimmers, they cross rivers 

 without hesitation in their way to and from their favourite 

 feeditig-places ; indeed, I have often known roe pass across the 

 river daily, living on one side^ and going to feed every evening 

 on the other. Even when wounded, I have seen a roebuck beat 

 three powerful and active dogs in the water, keeping ahead 

 of them, and requiring another shot before he was secured. 

 Though very much attached to each other, and living mostly 

 in pairs,^ I have known a doe take up her abode for several 

 years in a solitary strip of wood. Every season she crossed a 

 large extent of hill to find a mate, and returned after two or 

 three weeks' absence. When her young ones, which she pro- 

 duced every year, were come to their full size, they always went 

 away, leaving their mother in solitary possession of her wood. 



The roe aim si; always keep to woodland, but I have known 

 a stray roebuck take to lying out on the hill at some distance 

 from the covers. I had frequently started this buck out of 

 glens and hollows several miles from the woods. One day, as 

 I was stalking some hinds in a broken part of the hill, and had 

 got within two hundred yards of one of them, a fine fat barren 

 hind, the roebuck started out of a hollow between me and the 

 red deer, and galloping straight towards them, gave the alarm, 

 and they all made off. The buck, however, got confused by 

 tne noise and galloping of the larger animals, and, turning back, 

 passed me within fifty yards. So to punish him for spoiling 



' They do not unite in herds, but live in separate families. — Scrope, Deer Stalking, 

 p. 183. ' . ■ 



