62 ROEBUCK. Class I. 



was almost destroyed, and many years elapsed 

 before it was restored again. I was informed in 

 Scotland, that it is very difficult to rear the 

 fawns ; it being computed that eight out of ten 

 of those that are taken from their parents die. 



Wild roes during summer feed on grass, and 

 are very fond of the rubus sa.mtilis, called in 

 the highlands the roebuck berry ; but in winter 

 time, when the ground is covered with snow, 

 they brou ze on the tender branches of fir and 

 birch. 



In the old Welsh laws, a roebuck was valued 

 at the same price as a she goat ; a stag at the 

 price of an ox ; and a fallow-deer was esteemed 

 equal to that of a cow, or, as some -say, an he 

 goat.* 



It will not be foreign to the present subject, 



to mention the vast horns frequently found in 



Fossil Ireland, and others sometimes met with in our 



Horns. 



own kingdom. The latter are evidently of the 

 stag kind, but much stronger, thicker, heavier, 

 and furnished with fewer antlers than those of 

 the present race; of those some have been 

 found on the sea-coast of Lancashire,^ and a 

 single horn was dug a few years ago out of the 

 sands near Chester. Those found in J Ireland 



* Leges TfalHccE, 258. f Ph. Tr. No. 422. 



% Boates Nat. Hist. Ireland, 137- 



