^96 COMMON ROE. 



They never stay in the deepest recesses of the fo- 

 rests, nor in the middle of extensive woods; but 

 give the preference to the skirts or projections of 

 woods, which are surrounded with cultivated 

 fields, and to open coppices which produce the 

 berry-bearing alder, brambles, &c. 



The fawns continue with their parents eight 

 or nine months, and, when separated, about the 

 end of the first year of their age, the first horns 

 begin to appear, in the form of two knobs, much 

 less than those of the stag. There is still a greater 

 difference between these two animals. The horns 

 of the stag are cast in the spring, and are renewed 

 in summer ; but those of the Hoe fall off^ at the 

 end of autumn, and are replaced in winter. When 

 the Roebuck has renewed his horns, he rubs them 

 against the trees, like the stag, in order to free 

 them from the skin with which they are covered ; 

 and this commonly happens in the month of 

 March, before the trees begin to shoot. Hence 

 it is not the sap of the wood which colours the^ 

 horns of the Roe. The horns, however, are brown 

 when the animal is brown, and yellow when he- 

 is red. The- second horns of the Roe have two 

 or three antlers in each side : the third three or 

 four; the fourth four or five, and they seldom 

 have more. We distinguish the old ones by the 

 thickness of their sterns, the largeness of the bur, 

 of the pearlings, &c. As long as the horns con- 

 tinue soft they are extremely sensible. Of this 

 I have had a striking example. The young shoot 

 of a Roebuck's horn was carried off bv a ball. The 



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