HIPPOPOTAMUSES, PIGS, AND DEER 299 



that somewhat abnormal (Dorcelaphine) group of American deer 

 represented by Dorcelaphus and other genera. 



The roe deer at the present day exhibits two sub-species or 

 species. There is the common roe, indigenous to Great Britain, 

 Europe, and Western Asia, and there is the Siberian roe 

 {Capreolus pygargus), which is a decidedly larger animal, with a 

 somewhat less abbreviated tail. The antlers of this roe can 

 occasionally become quite palmated. There is also said (though 

 this is doubtful) to be a third variety or species — the Manchurian 

 roe, which agrees in most particulars with the European, but 

 differs somewhat in coloration. The present area of distribution 

 of the European roe is the greater part of Europe (including 

 the south of Sweden), and parts of Russia, the Caucasus, and 

 Asia Minor. The roe is not indigenous to Ireland, and no 

 fossil remains of the animal have been found as yet in Irish 

 deposits. It exists in Ireland at the present day in the county 

 of Sligo, in the north-west, but it has only been introduced there 

 for a hundred years. In one or two other parks of Ireland it 

 was also kept, but it does not seem to flourish in that country. 

 There are said to be still a few indigenous roe living in parts of 

 Cumberland descended from the old English stock, but elsewhere 

 in England the roe became extinct early in English history. 

 In "Wales the wild roe lingered down to the end of the sixteenth 

 century. When the owners of parks began to take an interest 

 in the native fauna, attempts were made at the beginning of 

 the nineteenth century and onwards to reintroduce the roe. A 

 flourishing colony of them was got together in Dorsetshire, mainly 

 on the estate of Milton Abbas. It is here that the present writer 

 has seen most of the roe, and his coloured drawing is made from 

 sketches of roe in the park of Milton Abbas some years ago.^ 

 The roe, however, has remained continuously a native of Scotland 

 from the Pleistocene period. Here they are still found in the 

 Highland districts, away from the farming and industrial localities. 



1 There are roe deer now in the New Forest, at Virginia Water, in 

 Epping Forest, and in several parks in Sussex, Surrey, Wales, and no 

 doubt elsewhere. 



