European Roe 225 



out any white on the rump, but paler on the under-parts ; a blackish 

 streak across the hairy portion of the muzzle, cutting the hinder part of the 

 nostril and running to the angle of the mouth, and some small whitish 

 markings in this region ; front of face grizzled gray, darkest below the 

 eyes ; late in the season a buffish rump-patch produced, apparently by fading 

 of the hair. Winter pelage very much thicker and coarser ; general colour 

 speckled yellowish gray-fawn, the hairs 

 being gray at the base and rufous at 

 the tips ; a patch of pure white on the 

 rump, including the region of the tail, 

 but not extending markedly on to the 

 rlank ; head, with the exception of the 

 markings on the face, uniform grizzled 

 gray. The metatarsal tuft is darker 

 than either summer or winter coat. 



Albino varieties of the roe have been 

 recorded from Scotland and Germany. 

 Ten or eleven inches is about the 

 normal length for fair-sized horns, the 

 maximum recorded by Mr. Rowland 

 Ward being 1 3 inches. A pair from 

 Austria measuring 15^- inches in length 

 are, however, mentioned in Bell and 

 Alston's British Quadrupeds. Occasion- 

 ally specimens are met with in which 

 the front, or lower prong of the main 

 fork is divided, thus producing four 

 tines ; and malformed antlers are of 

 very frequent occurrence. The first antlers form a simple spike, and the 

 second pair are forked once, with the hinder prong the longer ; the third 

 pair being three-tined. Young roes are fully spotted with white. 



Distribution. — In suitable localities over the greater part of Europe as far as 

 and including the Caucasus, and probably Asia Minor, but the exact easterly 

 limits not determined. Although unknown in Ireland, the species occurs in 

 England and Scotland, the south of Sweden, France, Germany, Austria, 

 Hungary, Spain, Tuscany, Greece, Turkey, and Northern Palestine. In the 



2 G 



Fig. 60. — Head of Siberian Roc. 

 (Rowland Ward, Records of Big Game.') 



