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ON THE FORMER EXISTENCE OF THE: 
ROE-DEER IN ENGLAND. 
By J. E. HARTING, F.L.S., F.Z.S. 
I T is always a pleasing exercise of the understanding to> 
investigate the causes which produce important changes 
in animated nature ; and this is especially the case when those 
changes have relation to our own country, and to animals which,, 
once common here, have from one cause or another become- 
extinct. 
Our old English foresters were wont to distinguish three 
classes of game, namely, Beasts of Yenery (or of the forest),, 
as the Hart and Hind, Boar and Wolf ; Beasts of Chase, as 
the Buck and Doe, Fox, Marten, and Roe ; and Beasts and 
Fowls of Warren, namely, the Hare, Coney, Pheasant, and 
Partridge. 
When Turbervile, three centuries ago, wrote his Book of 
Hunting , and woodcraft in all its branches was accounted an 
essential part of a gentleman’s education, the Roe- deer held an 
important place amongst the ‘beasts of chase.’ During its 
first year it was termed a kid , the second year a gyrle , the 
third year a liemule , the fourth year a Roebuck of the first heady 
and the fifth year a fair Roebuck . When several were seen 
together they were spoken of as a bevy of Roes ; and the season 
for hunting them was between Easter and Michaelmas for 
bucks, and between Michaelmas and Candlemas for does.. 
While a hart was ‘harboured’ and a buck ‘lodged’ in the 
fern or underwood, a roe was said to be ‘bedded.’ The voices 
of all three were distinguished, and it was said the Red-deer 
‘ belleth,’ the Fallow-buck ‘ groaneth,’ and the Roe-deer 
‘belloweth.’ The first named was tracked by his ‘slot,’ the 
second by his ‘ view,’ the last by his ‘ foil ; ’ and, in the ancient 
jargon of the chase, various were the terms applied to each 
when hunted. 
It is not a little curious that of the three species of deer 
