THE ROE-DEER 



grass, herbs, berries, and the young shoots of bushes and trees ; ivy-leaves, where 

 they are to be obtained, forming a favourite article of diet. 



The range of the roebuck extends from the British Isles to Spain and Italy 

 in the south and to southern Scandinavia in the north, while eastwards it stretches 

 across Poland and the south of Russia at least as far as the Caucasus. In the Altai 

 and certain other parts of Siberia it is, however, replaced by a much larger, paler- 

 coloured species with more thickly haired ears, commonly known as the Siberian 

 roe {Capreolus pygargus), of which a local race inhabits the Tian Shan range. 

 Still farther east, in Manchuria and Mongolia, we come upon a smaller and 

 redder species, the Manchurian roebuck (C. manchuricus, or bedfordi), which is 

 more like the European roe, the red coat being exchanged for one of olive-brown 

 or grey in winter. 



In former days roebuck were doubtless distributed all over Great Britain ; 

 but by the middle of the eighteenth century they appear to have been killed off 

 everywhere, except in the highlands of Scotland. Later on, with the increase of 

 game-preservation, they have reasserted themselves, and spread over the lowlands 

 of southern Scotland, as well as parts of the north of England. In North Wales 

 they were reintroduced into Vaynol Park in 1874; and they have likewise been 

 turned down in the Blackmoor Vale of Dorsetshire, where they are now once more 

 wild. 



In height, a good roebuck will stand fully 26 inches at the shoulder ; 

 while in weight he will turn the scale at 60 lb., if in first-rate condition. On 

 the Continent these deer are generally hunted by means of beating the 

 woods, where the guns are stationed along the tracks by which the roe pass to 

 their feeding-grounds. Roe-venison, which is in best condition during winter, 

 is generally regarded as inferior to that of either the red or the fallow deer. 



