ROE DEER. 363 



remarkable peculiarity in its reproduction, appear to us 

 to entitle it to generic distinction. 



The Roe is a native of Europe and Northern Asia 

 south of 58° north latitude, The Siberian form, how- 

 ever, has been separated as a distinct species, under the 

 name of C pygargus (Pallas), principally on account of 

 its larger size, lighter colour, and longer antlers. But 

 these hardly seem sufficient characters to afford grounds 

 for specific distinction in so variable a family as the Deer 

 triVje, and we are therefore inclined to follow Prof. 

 Blasius in regarding the Roe Deer of Europe and Asia 

 as belonging to one species — the only one of the genus 

 yet known. In Europe it reaches its northern limit in 

 the south of Sweden, and it extends as far south as Italy 

 and Spain ; it is not found in northern and central 

 Russia, but occurs in the more southern provinces, in 

 the Ukraine and the Caucasus. In Asia the larger 

 variety is common in Persia and Tartary, and throughout 

 Siberia from the Ural Mountains to the River Lena. 



In Britain the Roe Deer was certainly very widely 

 distributed in olden times, when the greater part of the 

 country was covered with forests, but it gradually gave 

 way before the advances of cultivation, and when Pen- 

 nant wrote he regarded it as being restricted to the 

 Scottish Highlands north of Perthshire. Owing to the 

 stricter preservation of game and to the great increase 

 of plantations, it has again enlarged its bounds, and it 

 is now found in many of the more wooded districts of 

 the south of Scotland and north of England, in some of 

 which it is so numerous as to cause considerable damage 

 to young plantations. 



The favourite resorts of Roe Deer are large woods 

 with a thick undergrowth, bordering on meadows or 

 cultivated lands, to which they issue towards evening in 



